Election Will Be Peaceful, Fayose Tells America

‘• No Apology For Controversial Advert’

EKITI state governor, Ayo Fayose, has assured America that the general election will be peaceful and devoid of post election violence.

   He declared that President Jonathan would win convincingly, and warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop beating the drums of war.

   The governor who stated this in a press statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, in Ado Ekiti Saturday, also boasted that the APC would not win any seat in both the state and National Assembly elections in Ekiti.

  Fayose, who played host to a team of American diplomats led by the United States Consular General in Lagos, Jeffrey Hawkins, in his office, noted that the state witnessed a peaceful poll last year during the governorship election, and expressed confidence that the standard, this time, would not be lowered.

   The governor said Jonathan would defeat the APC’s challenger, General Muhammadu Buhari,‎ because, according to him, Nigeria is safe with Jonathan. He repeated that Buhari is too old and fragile to be president.

   Explaining to the diplomats the advertorial he placed in two papers last month, Fayose said it was not a death wish but an appeal to reasoning to prevent the episode of 2010 when the National Assembly had to invoke the Doctrine of Necessity.

   He said he has no apology for sponsoring the advert, adding that it was his personal opinion and not that of the PDP.

   “Our party, the PDP, abhors violence. In the build up to last year’s governorship election in the state, there was no record of members of our party being indicted for violence. We conducted ourselves in a peaceful manner and the records are there that it is APC members that were involved in violence. A number of them have murder cases hanging on their necks. Some are still wanted by the police and cannot come to the state,” Fayose said.

  In his remarks, Hawkins said the unity of Nigeria should be paramount in the mind of politicians. He decried the tension in the polity, saying elections should not be seen as war.

   Hawkins added that the United States is interested in a smooth transition of power in Nigeria.