The Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has said he cannot join the All Progressives Congress (APC), even if he has to leave his current party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Fayose, who spoke at a gathering in Ado-Ekiti, said the practice of use and dump adopted by the leadership of the APC would not allow him to contemplate defecting to the party.
A press statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, the governor cited the case of a national leader of the APC, Senator Bola Tinubu, who worked tooth and nail for the victory of the party in the 2015 general elections in the country and who was subsequently abandoned by those he helped to put in power.
“Some people have been making overtures to me to join the APC, but I cannot join them. With what have they repaid somebody like Asiwaju Tinubu? He worked and helped the party to secure victory but has been dumped. That is not a party I would be interested in joining.
“One thing I would not allow is for anybody to rubbish our leaders in the South-West. Our leaders, including Asiwaju Tinubu, must be accorded their due respect, as any attempt to rubbish them will be taken as a slap on the entire Yoruba race.”
The clarification by the governor came on the heel of crisis rocking the PDP at the national level in which Senators Ahmed Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff are locked in a battle over the national chairmanship seat of the party.
This is just as the governor said his administration would complete the rehabilitation of the federal Ado-Itawure Road before the burial of the late military governor of the old Western Region, Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo.
He also promised to rehabilitate the Ifaki-Omuo Road, another Federal Government road, to make access to the state more pleasurable.
On the need to ensure coordinated development for the state, Fayose said a master plan for Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, would be worked out.
He noted that the government would need the support of landlords and property owners, as the government would not want a situation whereby indiscriminate physical development would later turn the town into an eyesore.
He promised that a Landlords’ Summit would be conveyed to aggregate the opinions and input of landlords to the evolution of the master plan. (The Guardian)