Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
In a bid to sidestep the crisis that has engulfed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leading to its defeat in the Ondo State governorship election, Ekiti State Governor, Mr. , a stalwart of the party and one of the most virulent critics of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, has revealed that he may use another platform to prosecute his succession battle during the 2018 governorship poll.
Fayose also declared that the victory of Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Ondo State election, does not in any way threaten the supremacy of the PDP in Ekiti.
The governor added that Akeredolu’s emergence does not confer legitimacy on the poll or lend credence to the fact that the Ondo electorate had voted rightly.
Fayose, who spoke in Ikere Ekiti wednesday, while meeting with the members of the Suppliers’ Association of Nigeria, Ikere chapter, said: “I don’t know the platform I will use for the 2018 election yet and at the appropriate time, I will tell you.”
He added: “We are still studying the situation. We have to play the game left, right and centre and whoever we are going to use and the platform, you will all be part of the process because party politics is about the people.
“You all saw how people sold their votes in Ondo State. I am confident that that will not happen in Ekiti. I am close to the people, you are the source of my strength.
“Even if it requires just 48 hours to any election, if I tell you where to go, you will surely follow me there.”
At a separate meeting with the junior staff of the state civil service, Fayose boasted that he would repeat the 16-0 win he meted out to former Governor Kayode Fayemi in 2014, when he defeated the incumbent in all the 16 local governments in the state.
He promised that he would continue to do his best with the payment of salaries by carrying the workers along and letting them know what accrues to the state from the Federation Account, adding that there would not be any communication gap in so far as his government doesn’t operate in secrecy.
“APC will be fooling itself if it thinks it will conquer Ekiti like it did in Ondo. Ekiti is a peculiar place and I am the man on the ground here. I want to assure my supporters and Nigerians that APC won’t win a local government here in 2018, even if President Muhammadu Buhari
moves down all the money in federal government’s TSA.
“Governor Olusegun Mimiko and Eyitayo Jegede may have lost in Ondo State, but that does not mean the people had voted rightly. In 2015, people clamoured for change and what have we got now? Nigerians are becoming poorer than ever.
“Today, I am the only one among the APC governors in the South-west. I am now like the nation of Israel surrounded by enemies, but I shall defeat and triumph over them.
“APC has never defeated me in any battle, either political or legal. Whether they like it or not, I will win in Ekiti no matter the animosity because I have the people behind me,” Fayose declared.
