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President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday expressed optimism that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in Ekiti State, Mr Segun Oni, would emerge governor at Saturday's elections, even as he urged Ekiti people to remain in the mainstream of Nigeria's politics.
•No, you won't - Fayose
President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday expressed optimism that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in Ekiti State, Mr Segun Oni, would emerge governor at Saturday's elections, even as he urged Ekiti people to remain in the mainstream of Nigeria's politics.
Speaking in Ado-Ekiti, Obasanjo said reports by local and foreign election monitors had indicated that Oni would win in Ekiti, just like other PDP candidates in other parts of the country.
"We have a lot to gain by ensuring that we have a PDP government in Ekiti State and in Abuja," he said.
The suspended governor of the state, Mr Ayo Fayose, has, however, predicted PDP's fall in Ekiti State on Saturday, just as he reiterated his call on the people to shun the party and its candidates.
The president said he had warned the former governor, Mr Ayo Fayose, not to embark on the failed poultry project that led to his political doom.
"I came here and I begged, saying don't embark on the poultry project. I myself am a poultry farmer, but when I came I was surprised to see chickens that did not excrete at all. It is childish. It is puerile to me as the President of Nigeria. And you did that to me and I regard that as the highest height of insult," he said.
He admitted that the PDP had made mistakes in the past and prayed God not to allow a repeat of such blunders this time around.
The president who arrived Ado-Ekiti in a helicopter at about 10.10a.m. later addressed a rally of party faithful at Ijigbo junction for less than 10 minutes after which he departed for Borno and Kano states.
The administrator, Gen. Adetunji Olurin had earlier enumerated the achievements of his administration in the over five months that he had been in the saddle, saying relative peace had returned to the state. According to him, reconciliation had been achieved with the receiving of the report of the five-man judicial commission of inquiry that investigated the activities of past political appointees.
Fayose, in a telephone interveiw with Daily Sun, however, described President Obasanjo's visits to Ekiti as an indication of panic, even as he accused the president of creating the crises in the state.
"The situation on ground in Ekiti is a cause for worry to Obasanjo and his allies. Obasanjo's many visits to Ekiti, three times in five months, clearly indicates panic," Fayose said.
The former governor lampooned Obasanjo over his litany of unkempt promises to the people of the state in his eight years as president.
"If I were him, I'd concern myself with what I ought to do but never did in eight years. He failed to provide electricity via a 132 KVA sub-station despite several promises. The Ado-Otun Road which he promised never happened in eight years. How can the average Ekiti person now trust the president for his words?" Fayose queried.
He accused the president of foisting his kinsman on the state for selfish reasons, wondering why he had to impose a retired general from Ogun State on Ekiti.
Fayose, who accused Obasanjo of creating the crises in Ekiti State, said he incurred the president's wrath when he refused to award the contract for the controversial poultry project to the contractor recommended by Obasanjo.
"I charge the people of Ekiti, the electorate, particularly teachers, pensioners, civil servants, local government workers, not to vote Segun Oni, the PDP candidate in Ekiti.
"How can the president praise me today and change tune tomorrow? He is responsible for the past and imminent crises in Ekiti," he said.