The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has boasted that his party – the Peoples Democratic Party – will use the All Progressives Congress and former governor Segun Oni or anyone presented as the APC candidate in the 2018 governorship election to set another record.
The governor defeated former governor Kayode Fayemi of the APC in all the 16 local governments in the state in the 2014 governorship election.
Fayose expressed confidence that 2018 would mark the third time he and his party would defeat the opposition and its candidate in governorship elections in the state.
The governor stated this in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday, while reacting to comments made by Oni during his declaration of intent to contest the 2018 poll.
Oni had said that Fayose and the PDP were common enemies that he and the APC must tackle during the poll.
While advising Oni to keep his gunpowder dry until he is able to secure the APC’s ticket, Fayose noted that the APC and its candidate would be no match for the PDP and its candidate.
He said, “We defeated them (Alliance for Democracy) in 2003 and recorded a landslide victory against them (APC) in 2014 when their candidate could not even win his local government.
“The 2014 victory was very remarkable because Oni was part of a gang up of three former governors against me and my party and we won convincingly.
“Oni tried unsuccessfully to rubbish my administration’s giant strides in the state during my first tenure and the current one. It was during my first term that we dualised all the roads leading to Ado-Ekiti, the state capital. We repositioned education and improved on the state’s performance in public examinations. We are number one in NECO and among the top states in WAEC examinations.
“Now, we are not only dualising roads across 11 local government areas, we have extended the Ado-Ikere Road dualisation deep into Ikere town. Because the APC and its leaders in Ekiti lack foresight, they can never ever see anything good in the flyover, new Ojaba Market, new high court complex, new Governor’s Office and other numerous projects we are executing.
“They are simply dumbfounded that in spite of the austere times we are in, our administration has been able to forge ahead with these projects. It is only a leadership that is focused and knows its onions that can place the welfare of majority of people over and above the welfare of minority.”
Fayose said Oni and his party should be reminded that it was the APC-led administration of 2010 to 2014 that plunged the state into financial crisis by leaving workers’ entitlements unpaid and borrowing to finance projects it never executed.