Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
Immediate past governor of Ekiti State and Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi on Saturday declared for the governorship race in the state on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying the party would defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the July 14 poll.
Fayemi said the party would deploy everything allowed by the constitution to ensure that whoever emerges in the May 5 primary of the APC would triumph over the candidate of the PDP.
“They said the June 21 governorship poll was free, fair and credible, so that of July 14 will be free, fair and transparent as well. They will accuse us of so many things. They will accuse us of using federal might, but we will not care,” Fayemi said.
A large crowd of party supporters and admirers attended the declaration, which shut down Ado Ekiti, the state capital. Fayemi, who governed the state between October 16, 2010 and October 15, 2014, would be contesting the APC primary with at least 21 other aspirants that have collected the nomination and expression of interest forms of the party.
Fayemi said: “We will use local, state and federal power to take over Ekiti from a rapacious government being run by brigandage in Ekiti. Those of us who travel out of Ekiti are being insulted, assaulted and mocked on a daily basis by people asking why Ekiti people, which they thought were well read, refined and exposed, could make a character like Ayodele Fayose their governor. That is why it is important for us to reclaim our land and restore our values. There is no single aspirant in APC who will not do much more fantastic works than what we are getting in Ekiti under Fayose. That is why it is important for us to be united.. Let me say this, I am a loyal party man and I am ready to support whoever the party fields as the candidate.”
On the rising acrimony among the aspirants, the Minister said: “It is absolutely unacceptable for aspirants to indulge in abuses and use intemperate languages against one another.