The deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the July 14 election in Ekiti State, Alhaji Kazeem Deji Ogunsakin, has said that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has disappointed many stakeholders in the state.
Ogunsakin, in a statement, said the APC candidate disappointed the people of Ekiti South Senatorial district, Muslims community in the state and the entire teeming population of the youths.
He described the decision of Dr. Fayemi to clinch the ticket of the APC at all costs as spiting the people of the senatorial district who are the only one that have not produced governor in the history of the state.
He explained that the current trend of generational shift in leadership from the aged to the youth has also received disdain from the APC candidate and his party, just as he added that the APC also sidelined the vast Muslim community in the state.
According to Ogunsakin, “The people of Ekiti are watching with keen interest, how the APC and its candidate have been working at crossroads with the desire of majority of stakeholders in the state.
“While all have been calling for equity, based on the fact that both the North and central senatorial districts have had various shots at the governorship of the state, leaving South in the cold.
“Is it a bad idea to allow that district to have a sense of belonging by having a shot at it? Fayemi and his APC have scuttled that agitation.
“You will also observe that while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has adopted a Christian /Muslim ticket, the APC looked the other way. Are we saying that Muslims are not stakeholders in this project?
“Are we saying they don’t have any capable Muslim person in their party? He who comes to justice must come with equity. Even when Engr. Segun Oni, who is now with them, got the PDP ticket, he went for a Muslim running mate.
“As if all those are not enough, the APC and candidate shoved the youths aside. And they continue to shout they are the leaders of tomorrow. When will that tomorrow come? They went for a 76 year old as Deputy candidate.
“In the PDP, we have a very strong believe in our youths. We don’t see them as lazy. We know they have great potentialities. What is lacking is the enabling environment that the old order has refused to provide. And we are changing that trend.
“The current President of France, Emmanuel Macon, is about the same age as me. That shows that it is not only in Ayodele Fayose’s Ekiti or Nigeria that the need to put the youths in power is gaining ground.”
The PDP deputy governorship candidate, however, urged the entire people of the state to strengthen the nation’s democracy by voting for the “equitable arrangement of the PDP in the coming election, so that the state can be taken to the next level in an atmosphere of peace, justice and all round development.”