Ekiti 2018: Fayemi declares for APC ticket on Saturday

• Notifies Oyegun, Tinubu, Akande

Former Governor of Ekiti State, and Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, is set to declare for the Saturday, July 14, 2018, governorship election in Ekiti State. The minster has fixed Saturday, April 14, 2018, for public declaration for the governorship race in Ado-Ekiti.

Accordingly, Fayemi has communicated national and state leadership of the All Progressives Party (APC), elders of the party, prominent citizens and traditional rulers in the state, to notify them of his intention to run for the July 14 governorship election in the state.

Fayemi, in the letter, indicated that his public declaration for the gubernatorial contest would take place at a rally in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday.

The minster sent the letter to the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun; APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, all traditional rulers in Ekiti State, all ministers in the Federal Executive Council (FEC); former and serving governors elected on APC platform, as well as prominent sons and daughters of Ekiti.

The Minister, at the quarterly meeting of Ekiti APC leaders at his Isan Ekiti resident on April 2, 2018, revealed his intension to contest for APC governorship ticket for the July election.

In the buildup to the Saturday’s public declaration, Fayemi visited the 16 local government areas of the state, where he held meetings with local government and ward executives as well as elders of the party.

The tour which kicked off Monday, in Efon Local Government, ended in Oye Local Government Thursday.

Fayemi in the letter explained his decision to join the governorship race was informed by the need to join other patriots to rescue the state from the grip of the current insensitive and incompetent PDP-led administration, that has plunged the state and its people into unimaginable misery and poverty.

“My mission in public life which has always cantered on transforming the material conditions of our people has always revolved around these three imperatives – breaking the yoke of ignorance that keeps our people down; liberating them from ill-health and other limitations that restrain them from achieving their potentials; and breaking the stranglehold of poverty which keeps people from living full creative lives.

“In practical and policy terms, this for me has always meant prioritizing social investments in education, healthcare and other social interventions that reduce the cost of living, while raising the quality of life.

“Public office is too serious to be left to charlatans and when men and women of good conscience that are committed to the ideals of social justice and the common good turn away from politics, we pave way for unprincipled opportunists to take power.

“My convictions about how much more is possible in Ekiti stem not from any sense of entitlement but from a sense of service, of obligation and from my belief that posterity has positioned us for such a time as this.

“There is much that we have to repair and redress in Ekiti before we can go forward,” he said.