Posted by By Sun News Publishing on
South West Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors have dismissed the insinuation that they humiliated former President Olusegun Obasanjo by ditching his candidate for the party's chairmanship position at the recently held national convention in Abuja.
South West Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors have dismissed the insinuation that they humiliated former President Olusegun Obasanjo by ditching his candidate for the party's chairmanship position at the recently held national convention in Abuja.
All the PDP governors, including the five from the South-West states, had reportedly worked for the emergence of Prince Vincent Ogbulafor as the party's national chairman at the expense of former Ebonyi governor, Dr Sam Egwu, who was anointed for the post by Obasanjo.
But dismissing the view that he and his colleagues from the Yoruba states abandoned Obasanjo during an interactive session with journalists in Ado Ekiti at the weekend, Ekiti State governor, Segun Oni, an engineer, pointedly said 'there was nothing like humiliation."
According to Oni, the governors were not the only one in the PDP who installed Ogbulafor and his team.
He explained further that besides the governors, National Assembly members and other stakeholders took the decision that culminated in the emergence of the new PDP leadership, stressing 'we believe this is the best for our party at this material time."
'This is democracy, you should credit us with the right to elect our leaders. We are advancing the frontiers of democracy. We know the responsibility is high. You should also give us some credit," the Ekiti governor added.
Oni also defended the choice of Ogbulafor as PDP national chairman, describing him as 'a fit and proper person" who remained loyal to the party after his exit from the PDP national exco under Obasanjo in unsavoury circumstances.
Reacting to a question on his rule in Ekiti State in the last nine months and whether he was not distracted by the opposition's bid to oust him through the polls tribunal, Governor Oni said there were not enough distractions to make him lose focus and momentum in his quest to change the state.
'Nothing will stop me from making change. I can't be distracted to the extent that we'll not be able to deliver. I took great risk to be here. I didn't just want to be governor but to make change."
He expressed optimism that the opposition's attempt to overturn his victory would fail, stressing, 'we won the election and its going to be difficult to manufacture falsehold to change the face of truth."
The major thrust of his administration, according to Oni, in the last nine months had been more on changing the process of governance and restoring credibility to government.
He reeled out his achievements to include settling arrears of gratuities to the tune of N1.8bn, involving 2,975 people, and ensuring payment of gratuities within 60 days of retirement from public service.
Others are provision of subsidies in form of scholarship, microcredit and health interventions, construction of 350 kilometres of roads and employment of 4,000 every year into the civil service.