Oni: I will Avenge Fayemi’s Defeat If Given APC’s Ticket in 2018

By Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

The former Governor of Ekiti State and the All Progressives

Congress (APC) Deputy National Chairman (South), Chief Segun Oni, will today declare his intention for the 2018 governorship poll.

Oni, who was removed through judicial pronouncement in 2010 after three and half years in the saddle, said he would defeat the candidate presented by Governor Ayodele Fayose to avenge for the humiliation suffered by Dr. Kayode Fayemi in 2014.

 He described himself as having the magic wand to again bring the dividends of democracy to the people the way he did while in government.

Oni spoke at a news conference at his Ifaki-Ekiti country home to herald his official declaration and expression of interest coming up today in Ado Ekiti, the state capital.

He boasted that he would trounce Fayose and whoever is his anointed candidate in the PDP, in all the 16 local government council areas in the state, the same way, he (Fayose) defeated immediate past governor, Kayode Fayemi of the APC in last election.

 Oni said there was nothing so spectacular in the acclaimed political wizardry of  Fayose who twice defeated two former incumbent governors of the state, at different times, describing the mystery being moulded around Fayose as product of sentiment.

“About Fayose, this is not a game of arrogance. He is not larger than life as being speculated.  He, along with others once deployed their political machinery against me in certain  political contest but if you recall, i still emerged victorious, so what are you talking about”?

He blamed irregular payment of workers’ salaries in Ekiti state on wrong prioritisation of government’s policies and programmes, saying it was irrational for a state governor to be building multi-billion naira overhead bridge where workers welfare and wellbeing are left unattended.

The APC leader explained that his interest to contest the state’s number one position, was in response to the growing clamour  for his candidature by many residents and major stakeholders , who he claimed told him his services were earnestly needed.

He said he would use his return to power to instill a new social and economic order in the state as well as correct certain mistakes and errors he made during his first tenure, which was later terminated by the Appeal Court.

Besides, he said his love to take the state to the next level, rescue it from poverty , and make it rank as one of the best among the comity of states was his major driving force. “Though I am not hungry for power, i prefer to be governor of my state

than being something else. I am not the type who prefer glamour to service”, he said.

On whether his ambition would not cause frosty relationship between him and his successor in office who is also current Minister of Mines and Steel Development, who is equally believed to be interested in re-contesting the gubernatorial poll, Oni claimed ignorance about such ambition by Fayemi. The APC chieftain said contrary to fears being expressed in some

quarters, especially among several other aspirants of the party that the national secretariat of the party had concluded arrangements to impose him as candidate, the former governor said he was ready to face open primaries, and that the constitution even required him to also first resign his current appointment before the primaries