Ahead of Saturday’s general elections, the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has called on non-indigenes who are resident in the State to reelect the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, and other candidates of the party.
Speaking in Ado Ekiti at a meeting with representatives of Hausa, Igbo, Ebira and Urhobo communities as well as private sector unions in the State, Governor Fayemi urged the community and union leaders to mobilize their members to come out en masse and vote for Buhari, adding that Buhari’s re-election will enable him deliver more dividends of democracy to the people.
The Governor, who described Buhari as “slow but steady”, stated that Nigerians cannot afford to let the country retrogress by voting for the opposition because the implications are dire for the country.
He said: “I am soliciting your support and votes for Buhari. If I have Federal Government’s backing, it will help me to deliver more dividends to you people. If you truly mean what you say that you are supporting me, then you have to support Buhari. You cannot afford to play Ludo with this election because the implications are dire. Do you want to go back to where we are coming from or you want slow and steady progress?
“Buhari is honest and means well for Nigerians. I need at least 70 per cent of the votes in Ekiti. Mobilise your people to come out and vote for the APC on Saturday.”
Fayemi stated that he was aware of the rallies and mobilizations currently being done by the various non-indigenous groups, adding that victory cannot be fully actualized without them as “reliable allies and supporters”.
The community leaders who took turn to talk, pledged their support for the re-election of Buhari and other candidates of the APC in Ekiti State.
In his remarks, the representative of Ebira community in the State, Sulaiman Nasir, said the 79,073 Ebira voters resident in the State have resolved to go the way of their State Governor, Yahaya Bello, who had instructed them to vote for President Buhari.
Nasir said the ethnic group had held three different rallies to drum support for President Buhari because they are impressed by the achievements of the Fayemi-led government in Ekiti State, especially free education, which has afforded their children the opportunity to return to school.
The State President of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Nathaniel Uzoma, said though there have been “endorsement and counter-endorsement” by the national body of the Igbo union, the state chapter had resolved to support whoever Fayemi is backing because the governor had always being “a friend of the Igbos in Ekiti”.
Uzoma said: “I am giving you the assurance that Igbo people will vote for you. You are not alien to us. There are endorsement and counter-endorsement but we are in Ekiti. We cannot but queue up behind you because you are our friend. After this meeting, we will mobilize our people to vote for APC on Saturday.”
The representatives of Urhobo community, Francis Agofure, and his Hausa community counterpart, Shehu Bagudu, both pledged the support of their communities for the President’s re-election, hinging their decision on the good relationship they enjoy with Fayemi.
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