Ekiti PDP seeks electorate’s support for guber poll

Ahead of the scheduled July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State, governorship aspirant and incumbent Deputy Governor, Prof. Kolapo Olusola of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has appealed to the electorate to return the ruling party.

Olusola said his position was based on the fact that the PDP has been of more benefits to Ekiti State than the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) administrations. 

Explaining how he intends to rule if elected, the Deputy Governor said that 90 percent of the projects adorning the state were executed by PDP administrations.

In a press statement, the Director of Press and Strategy, Kolapo Olusola Campaign Organisation (KOCO), Kamil Ishola said in the history of the state, PDP governments are more beneficial to the people than APC.

He urged Ekiti people to let the good works of the current PDP government continue, saying, “We are all witnesses to what happened in the state from 1999 to 2003 and how the tenure of the APC elected officials plunged our state into debts. 

“It was the administration of Governor Ayodele Fayose, which took over in 2003 to 2006 that cleared the debts. The incumbent governor also left office with over N10 billion in the state’s treasury. The PDP administration that followed did not also borrow a dime until the APC’s government of Dr. Kayode Fayemi came and plunged the state into huge debts.”

Olusola said it was Fayemi’s debts Fayose is currently contending with. He added that despite the initial setback, the governor has been able to execute several legacy projects that have changed the landscape of the state.

Olusola boasted that Fayose, by overwhelming performance, set an unmatched record in the governance of Ekiti, and therefore deserves good support from the people by returning PDP in the July 14 poll. 

According to him, “Continuity is very germane to Ekiti this time around. And I am urging our people to vote for me to continue and improve on the Fayose’s and the PDP legacies.”

On his chances in the PDP primary, Olusola said, “I am looking unto God and the party to clinch the ticket.”

Meanwhile, a former member of the House of Representatives and chieftain of the APC, Bamidele Faparusi, has hinted that the Ekiti South senatorial district would vote against any party that jettisoned the zoning formula in the next governorship election.

Insisting there was once a gentleman agreement on zoning formula among political leaders in the state sometimes in 2014 that the next governor should come from the southern senatorial district, Faparusi said some selfish politicians are poised to breach the unwritten accord in the next election.

Faparusi spoke in Ado Ekiti at the weekend while appearing on a programme tagged: ‘My Agenda’ organized by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ekiti Council.

He said the APC must accept the zoning arrangement by picking its candidate from the South senatorial district that has not produced governor since 1999.

According to him, “I believe so much in zoning not because I am from the south, but for equity, justice and fair play. Ekiti South can’t be treated as second class zone in the state, this is wrong, undemocratic and unacceptable.”

Faparusi said the people are patiently waiting for APC to come up with a candidate, saying: “The people are tired of Governor Fayose and the PDP. Most of the projects like the flyover, Oja Oba Market and the new governor’s office were being done not as a matter of necessity, but for mere propaganda. It is therefore obvious that the incumbent governor has failed the people and it is the people desire to reject him and his party in the 2018 poll.”

Unveiling his agenda, Faparusi promised to rebuild Ekiti economy through what he termed (CATT), meaning Commercial Agriculture, Technological innovation and Tourism.

“Ekiti has a lot of mountains and prayer centres. We can build them into a global standard as spiritual tourist centres like we have in Israel and Saudi Arabia. The Ikogosi Warm Spring, Arinta Waterfall and the rolling Efon Hills are other tourist potentials I will harness to make Ekiti the hub of economic growth in the Southwest,” he said.