Fayemi not interested in taking Ekiti by force ―Ekiti APC chair
By CHAIRMAN of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Chief Jide Awe, has said that the governorship candidate of the party in July election, Dr Kayode Fayemi, was not planning to rig, saying he is not interested in taking Ekiti by force.
Chief Awe spoke in Erinjiyan Ekiti at a reception held in his honour by the people of the town after three years in exile due to allegations of murder, for which he was charged to court by the Ekiti State government.
Awe said rather, APC presented Dr Fayemi due to his strong credentials of performances to win under a free and fair atmosphere.
He said the former Minister of Mines and Steel Development was not planning to rig the July 14 governorship election, saying “Fayemi did exceedingly well in Ekiti as a governor and the party is relying heavily on this strong antecedents to win the coming election and not intending to capture the state in a Gestapo-like manner.”
According to him, defections of PDP bigwigs, like a former Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye and ex-Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Owoseeni Ajayi to APC were justifiable, saying they took the action due to the alleged dictatorship of Governor Ayodele Fayose.
The APC boss promised that the party’s top hierarchy would manage the defectors and their supporters to avert unhealthy rivalry with old members, and gave the assurance that the new entrants would be rewarded based on contributions to party’s success.
Awe had fled Erijiyan and indeed, Ekiti State to prevent arrest, when he was accused of being behind the killings of members of the community, Mrs Julianah Adewumi and Ayo Jeje in the build-up to the June 21, 2014 governorship election in the state.
The state government withdrew from the matter recently, thereby causing the court to discharge and acquit Awe from the murder.
Awe thanked the State Working Committee (SWC) of the party for not impeaching him as the state party Chairman during his travail and urged them to use the same spirit to work for Fayemi’s success in the coming governorship election.
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He said: “We are not interested in taking Ekiti about by force. The good credentials of our party in terms of performances in all the 133 towns were sufficient to defeat PDP in this election.”
On the fear that the defections of Adeyeye and others to APC may spark an unwarranted crisis between the old and new members, Awe said: “Party is about crisis management. We are going to manage everybody.
“APC is like a beautiful flower that is attracting all manners of insects, but we shall reward everybody based on contributions.
“There is no watertight legal framework that regulates defection and there is no way you can stop people from leaving a party when it was being run like a personal estate the way governor Fayose has been doing in PDP. Not everybody can be comfortable with his style.
“We shall manage them effectively. APC is a big political family with large tentacles that can accommodate everybody,” he said.
He said the party’s respect for him while away in exile had made him more determined to work for APC’s success in Ekiti.
“I have served for 12 years and the party had done me a great honour. I have been galvanizing our people to work together and win for Fayemi. We have forgotten about the primary, it is now time to work for our party.
“That was the instruction we gave to our members and whoever defies it because he had an individual axe to grind with Fayemi will have himself to blame, is like disobeying the party and we won’t tolerate such,” Awe stated.
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