“Governor Kayode Fayemi, who is in power, is the only one that can answer the zoning call now, because he is in government. The PDP should think of who can win election. We don’t want to be nice guys this time, but a good and determined opposition party.”
Ekiti State former Governor Segun Oni has advised the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to disregard agitation for zoning in the party ahead of the June 2022 governorship election, saying the party should rather settle for a candidate who can defeat the ALl Progressives Congress, APC, in the crucial election.
Oni said zoning would mar the party’s electoral chances.
He stated that the leading opposition party should place priority on someone who could defeat the APC in a free, fair and credible election, instead of playing politics of identity.
He declared emphatically that the APC had lost next year’s governorship election in Ekiti State.
He said voters had rejected the ruling party because of its failure in the areas of security, employment generation and economy.
Oni’s riposte came against the backdrop of calls in recent times by politicians from Ekiti South, including ex-Ekiti deputy governor Prof Kolapo Olusola, to cede the governorship ticket to the zone.
Their argument was that Ekiti South had not produced the governor since 1999.
But responding in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, July 27, 2021 during an interactive session with reporters on his mission to return to Ekiti Government House in 2022, Oni said zoning would do damage to the PDP.
Read him: “When I was going in 2010, I said we should help the South to become governor. No governor had ever liked the South more than me. I gave key positions like the Minister, Secretary to the State Government, Commissioner for Works to the South when I was the governor.
“Let me say this clearly, only a ruling party can zone governorship. But if you are in opposition, you should only think of who can take power. Let me thank Mr. Ayodele Fayose, he had the luxury as a governor and he went for it, though we lost in 2018.”
“Governor Kayode Fayemi, who is in power, is the only one that can answer the zoning call now, because he is in government. The PDP should think of who can win election. We don’t want to be nice guys this time, but a good and determined opposition party.”
Oni said PDP had a high possibility of winning the next election in Ekiti.
He stated that the people were already disillusioned with the APC government.
According to him: “Ekiti voters are ready for us, I mean ready to vote for us. No party can be lucky more than this. Our road to the Government House is almost clear, people have been saying that to us. Though we have internal crises, we will resolve our differences, because we don’t want to play a second fiddle again.”
The former governor described the insecurity in Ekiti, where people were being killed and kidnapped, as very unfortunate, saying he would rise to the occasion and stem the tide if given the opportunity to serve in the position of governor.
“The issue of insecurity is very unfortunate, but not peculiar to Ekiti alone. When I was the governor, we constructed a panic alert system, that could alert the police anywhere there was a gunshot in Ekiti and police would just come to the location quickly to rescue the situation.
“You don’t allow insecurity to come and meet you, it will overwhelm you and this is what we are experiencing now. As someone who is fighting insecurity, you must be at the front thinking outside the box. Those in government should have a rethink on security issues,” Oni said.
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