Kamarudeen Ogundele, Ado Ekiti
The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has said he will not apologise for adopting his deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, as the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate for the 2018 governorship election.
He also told the former Minister of Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, and other aggrieved PDP aspirants that they were free to leave the PDP for other parties.
Fayose spoke at a declaration of ambition (tagged ‘baby declaration’) by Olusola in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday.
Adeyeye, a former Nigerian High Commissioner to Canada, Dare Bejide; a former Commissioner for Justice, Owoseni Ajayi; and a Senator representing Ekiti-South, Mrs. Abiodun Olujimi, had kicked against the adoption of Olusola by Fayose as his candidate.
They described the adoption of Olusola as arrogant and anti-democratic.
But Fayose at the rally said, “The PDP has taken a position; I say we have taken a position and we have no apologies for that and the position is that Olusola should take over after me as the governor of Ekiti.
“It doesn’t matter to us how many people that are abusing us by our action. They are even free to join our adversaries, but we will defeat them as God liveth.”
The governor described the declaration as a show of strength to warn the APC, saying, “We are here, we have what it takes to win an election. They say they want to rig election; that will not happen here in Ekiti; they should look elsewhere.
“They must know that politics is not played in the other room; it is played in the living room. We are going to play politics of the living room and not the other room.”
Fayose said the date of the main declaration would be announced later.