The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State has told the
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John
Odigie Oyegun, to perish the thought of his party making any
appreciable impact in the July 14, 2018 governorship election not to
talk of winning, saying; “Ekiti is a no go area for APC.”
State Chairman of the APC, Chief Gboyega Oguntuase, who reacted to
statement made in Ado Ekiti on Monday by the APC National Chairman
that the forthcoming July 14, 2018 Ekiti governorship election was a
must win for the party and that every available resources will be
deployed to win the election, said “If Oyegun believes that the
federal government instruments can be used to manipulate the election
in favour of the APC, Ekiti people are well prepared to resist the
party and its rigging plot.”
Addressing journalists in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, Chief Oguntuase called
on the International Community as well as Civil Society Organisations
(CSOs) in the country to “focus their attention on the processes
leading to the conduct of the Ekiti governorship election so as to
ensure that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
conducts an election that truly represents the will of the people.”
The Chairman said; “Every single APC member here in Ekiti knows that
the party is nowhere near any chance of winning just one out of the 16
local councils in the State.
“The only thing they have been saying is that Governor Ayodele Fayose
has been giving President Muhammadu Buhari problems and he (Buhari)
has vowed to go to any length to take Ekiti from the governor so as to
serve as a payback for his persistent criticism of the President.
“To us in the PDP, we can begin to draw correlation between the
yesterday’s ‘we must win the Ekiti election by fire by force’ comment
of Chief Oyegun with the way APC members and leaders have been
boasting of using federal might to take Ekiti.
“However, we are sure that even if President Buhari is brought to
Ekiti as the INEC Returning Officer for the election, APC will still
fail.
“The international community and CSOs in Nigeria should therefore
begin to focus their attention on the election from now and beam their
searchlights on INEC and other agencies of the federal government that
will be involved in the election. This is because the election will be
an indicator as to the readiness and willingness of INEC to conduct
free, fair and credible presidential election in 2019.”