A member of the seventh House of Representatives and governorship aspirant in Ekiti State, Hon. Bamidele Faparusi, has promised to join forces with other like-minded people to prevent some All Progressives Congress, APC, leaders from relegating Ekiti South senatorial district in the politics of the state. He stated that for the party’s National Working Committee to keep its integrity intact before and after the primary, former Governor Segun Oni and Deputy National Chairman (South) of the party should
immediately relinquish his position, having plunged into Ekiti governorship race. Faparusi said he suspected that deliberate conspiratorial strategies were being contrived by some powerful leaders in the state and beyond to perpetually keep the people of the south district from having access to the governorship seat, describing this as callous and ungodly.
The APC leaders said it will tantamount to neo-colonialism for the
people of the district to be treated like second class citizens in their own state by being insulated from the plum seat 21 years after the state was created. Faparusi spoke in Ode Ekiti, Gbonyin Local Government Area of Ekiti State on Wednesday while reacting to the expression of intent by
former Governor Oni for the race. He said though he has enormous respect for Chief John Odigie Oyegun-led NWC and that he could vow for the members’ integrity,
he entertained fears that the primary will not be handled transparently if Oni still kept his exalted position. Faparusi warned that the NWC must avoid the banana peel by resisting pressures from some quarters to dispel the allegation that they were under stringent instruction to manipulate the primary in Oni’s favour.
“Our party is bigger than any individual and the party should not allow itself to be put to disrepute by Oni and his cohorts”, he said. The former federal parliamentarian added that aspirants from the south senatorial district have the wherewithal to win a free, fair and transparent primary, which he said cannot be guaranteed if Oni continues to function as the National Deputy Chairman of the Party.
“I therefore wish him well in his constitutional but immoral pursuits of the self serving governorship ambition. But it has to be reminded that one doesn’t win election through fantasy or arm-chair analysis. “I pray that God will grant him the fortitude to be able to absorb the shock that will be his fate at the primary”, he said. However, Oni in his reaction said he recognised the fact that zoning is a legitimate advocacy, pointing out that such will not prevent other interested aspirants from vying for the position.
“Zoning in my own belief is a legitimate agitation but it doesn’t
supersede the constitution. Our party must see the PDP and Governor Ayodele Fayose as enemies we must fight. We have to avoid internal crisis. “Let me also say that I will support whoever the party picks if the primary doesn’t go in my favour because I am not hungry for power”, he clarified.
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