As agitations for the zoning of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket to Ekiti South Senatorial District begin to shake the party’s foundation, a group, the Ekiti South APC Mandate, has appealed to the party’s national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the party’s first interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, to intervene in the conundrum and save the zone from perpetual marginalisation.
It appealed to the leadership of the party to prevail on Governor Kayode Fayemi to retrace his stand and support the zone for justice, equity, fair play and oneness to be entrenched in the state.
In a statement made available to journalists in Ado Ekiti, on Monday, the group’s Coordinator, Dr Michael Orimoloye, described the support being allegedly given by Governor Fayemi to the immediate past SSG, Biodun Oyebanji, as a betrayal of trust and disrespect to the zone.
In this regard, Orimoloye appealed toTinubu and Akande, who are respectable APC leaders in the southwest and Nigeria, to appeal to Governor Fayemi to embrace zoning, which was the same political matrix that launched him into power in 2007.
“We will like to appeal to the national leadership of APC to prevail on Dr Fayemi to reverse himself on the move to impose a candidate from Ekiti Central, failure which our party will lose the general election.
“It marvelled us that Governor Fayemi, who was the major beneficiary of zoning in APC could treat the south this way.
“In the last governorship election, Governor Fayemi won four out of the six local governments in the south to clinch victory despite the fact that the PDP candidate, Prof Kolapo Olusola is from the zone. The impression then, which is now turning erroneous was that he will consider the zone for governorship after his second term tenure.
“In the countdown to the 2007 election in Action Congress, we knew the virulent agitations made by Governor Fayemi and many of us from other zones for the North to get the ticket.
“At a time, it became North affairs with the emergence of Segun Oni from PDP. Why can’t this patriotic and justiceable gesture be reciprocated for political stability and trust?
“We remember with nostalgic feelings and relish, how Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had intervened then and we urge the national leader of APC to come to the aid of Ekiti South Senatorial district the same way he assisted Ekiti North to produce the Governor,” he said.
“This agitation is not about us or any individual, but about our today and tomorrow. The mood in town now is that Ekiti is no longer one. The fabrics of our oneness and togetherness are fast tearing and it may tear to shreds if this injustice is allowed to stay and fester”.
The group saluted the rare courage of Prof Bolaji Aluko to speak above the whispers about the utilization of public resources for private gains and the resignation of the Commissioner for Public Utilities, Hon Bamidele Faparusi, from Fayemi’s cabinet to contest the governorship election, describing the acts as courageous and patriotic to the senatorial district.
“The claim within Fayemi’s political caucus has been that Ekiti South doesn’t have personalities with a gubernatorial carriage, competence, commitment and mien for the plum position, but I disagree with this disrespectful averment and sinister notion.
“This amounts to an assassination of the personae of illustrious and prominent Ekiti Southerners like Prof Bolaji Aluko, a professor of repute with credible history, Dr Oluyede, a successful Doctor of Ikere extraction, and Hon Bamidele Faparusi, an engineer of note with a great blend of legislative and executive trajectory.
Following the recent development regarding the indication of interests to run, Bamidele said: “The question on the lips of many is, ” Didn’t people like Professor Bolaji Aluko currently serving and Hon Bamidele Faparusi, who served as commissioner under Fayemi and other appointees from the zone give their best to serve the state?
“We still have great individuals of south extraction in that cabinet that have done wonderfully under Fayemi. These individuals should at best be given the opportunity to put their foot forward.”
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