Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti state should be ready to concede defeat after the July 14 poll, just as former President Goodluck Jonathan conceded to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
Atiku said he is optimistic that the PDP would win the poll because of the support Ekiti people have given the party’s standard bearer, Prof. Olusola Eleka.
The former Vice President, who was in the state with members of the PDP Governorship Campaign Council yesterday, expressed satisfaction with the level of the preparedness of his party for the upcoming poll.
“We are satisfied that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is prepared for this election. We hope that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will accept the outcome of the election. They should be democratic for the first time. We have seen how democratic they are, but for the first time in 2015, we had an opposition party taking over from the ruling party, so we expect them to do the same,” Atiku said.
Fielding questions from reporters after the meeting of the campaign council, Governor AyoFayose alleged that the APC is only banking on rigging the election, but boasted that the PDP had already won.
He said: “They (PDP leaders) are here because they know that PDP has won this election. Everyone is on the same page with us. The only thing the APC is holding on to is to rig the election. We have told INEC that this is a pointer to the 2019 election. They should save their image.
“The country is bigger than all of us. Let me tell them, if rigging has been tried elsewhere it won’t work here. The people will defend this election. We are aware of plans to bring thugs here to disrupt the election; the people will stand up to them. The PDP leadership is in the state today to strengthen our hands and assured us of their support. I want to say that this election is about the people, for the people and it must be so. Ekiti election is not only about Nigeria, the whole world is watching. We are looking forward to observers from all over the world because I am the voice they want to suppress. We are prepared for the election and we are going to win.”
The roll call of the leadership of the party who were in attendance include the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, former Senate President , David Mark, former Kano state governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, former Governor of Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel among others.