Group Urges Tinubu, Akande to Intervene in Ekiti APC Zoning Crisis

Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

A group has appealed for the intervention of the All Progressive Congress (APC) National Leader, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the party’s first interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, as agitation for the zoning of the APC’s governorship ticket of the state to Ekiti South Senatorial District has started to shake the party to its foundation.

The political group under the nomenclature “Ekiti South APC Mandate,” (ESAM)

Has appealed to the leadership of the party to prevail on Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to retrace his stand and support the zone so that justice, equity, fair play and oneness would be entrenched in the state.

In a statement made available to journalists in Ado Ekiti yesterday, the Coordinator of the ESAM, Dr. Michael Orimoloye, described the alleged support of Fayemi to his immediate past Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, as a betrayal of trust and disrespect to the zone.

Orimoloye, therefore, appealed to Tinubu and Akande, who are respectable leaders of the APC in the South-west and Nigeria, to ask Governor Fayemi to embrace zoning, which was the same political matrix that launched him into power in 2007.

He said: “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 marveled us that Governor Fayemi, who was the major beneficiary of zoning in the 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’s Governorship Candidate, Professor Kolapo Olusola, is from the zone. The impression then, which is now turning erroneous, was that Fayemi will consider the zone for governorship after the tenure of his second term.

“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 justiciable gesture be reciprocated for political stability and trust?

“We remember with nostalgic feelings and relish, how Senator 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.

“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 fabric of our oneness and togetherness is fast tearing and it may tear to shreds if this injustice is allowed to stay and fester.”

The group saluted the rare courage of Professor Bolaji Aluko to speak above the whispers about the utilisation 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 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 a professor of repute with credible history, Professor Bolaji Aluko; a successful Doctor of Ikere extraction, Dr. Oluyede, and an engineer of note with a great blend of legislative and executive trajectory Hon. Bamidele Faparusi.

Faparusi asked: “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 that have done wonderfully under Fayemi. These individuals should at best be given the opportunity to put their foot forward.