Commercial drivers and okada riders unions in Ekiti State on Tuesday said they were solidly behind Governor Ayo Fayose and vowed to defend the governor’s mandate.
They described as a figment of the imagination of the All Progressives Congress the claim that they shunned the governor’s call to invade the state House of Assembly.
In a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday and signed by the Chairman of the Road Transport Employers Association, Samuel Agbede; the Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Clement Adekola; and the Chairman of the Okada Riders Association, Comrade Niyi Dahunsi, the unions said Fayose did not ask them to invade the House of Assembly as alleged by the APC.
The statement added: “What we are interested in is the protection of the mandate we gave Governor Fayose and we are not going to leave anything to chance in protecting the mandate.”
The commercial drivers and motorcyclists unions warned the APC to “stop using Panadol for other people’s headache”.
They said: “… we will continue to do what we must do to protect the mandate of Ekiti people from being stolen by the APC.
“Our advice is that the APC lawmakers should respect the decision of Ekiti people and stop acting like a congregation of bad losers, who won’t mind pulling Ekiti State down just because their party lost power in the state.”
Speaking further, the commercial drivers and motorcyclists said: “What we told our members in the announcements we made on Sunday was that they should monitor movement of vehicles into Ekiti State so as to prevent invasion of our state by thugs, and this is still being done.
“We therefore wish to reiterate that our members are prepared to defend the mandate freely given to Gov Fayose.”