From Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti

All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, yesterday urged its aspirants to work in unity in order to defeat Governor Ayo Fayose and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2018 governorship election.

Chairman of the party, Jide Awe, made the call when former governor of the state, Segun Oni, declared his intention to be governor formally to the party in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

Awe, who was represented by his deputy, Mrs. Kemi Olaleye, said the common enemy of the party is Governor Fayose and his party, PDP, and urged aspirants on the party’s platform to work in unity to retrieve power from PDP in 2018.

The acting chairman, who disclosed that 19 aspirants have emerged in APC, said: “Let our people desist from this. Governor Fayose should be seen as our common enemy. With the crowd we are seeing today, Fayose will be rattled, so don’t care about the hate campaign, it was not out of hatred but some supporters were out to market their principals.”

Handing out a red card to the PDP in the state, Oni told Fayose to start packing his loads from the Government House as he was bringing in a new social and economic order that would change lives of the people for the better.

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Oni said: “I am going to build on the past records. I knew those projects Ekiti loved during my first term, and I will build on that and those ones that needed to be corrected.

“My believe, as we prepare for this race, is that together, we can win. I have no enemy to fight in APC, no matter what our differences are.

“This party is a vehicle we must protect from being crashed and with the subtle appraisal we did today, we know that the PDP will become history in Ekiti in 2018.”

Speaking in the same vein, another aspirant, Kola Alabi, who spoke in Ikere-Ekiti, noted that the large number of aspirants contesting for the governorship slot would be an impetus to win the election, rather than an impediment.

Alabi said though he aligned with the idea of zoning of governorship ticket to the South, where he hailed from, the party must also respect rights of other contestants from other zones to prevent implosion.

He said the party will look inward and allow best candidate to emerge through free, fair and credible primaries but pointed out he remained the best among the contestants that had showed interest in the race in terms of age, experience and party discipline.