The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to put himself at the forefront of preaching one man one vote if he really desires to conduct free and fair election in Ekiti and Osun States and in 2019.
Secondus said nothing on the ground so far is showing that the All Progressives Congress government is preparing to conduct free and fair election in Ekiti State.
The National Chairman, who spoke in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, on Friday at the commissioning of various projects of Governor Ayodele Fayose, said PDP’s performance in Ekiti State has closed the gate for any other party in the state to win.
According to a statement from the media office of the National Chairman, signed by his Media Adviser, Ike Abonyi, Secondus warned that any attempt to rig the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ekiti State would be a recipe for crisis.
He said: “Let me remind the APC government that the political problem in the country in the Second Republic started with the election manipulations of the then ruling National Party of Nigeria in the the old Ondo State comprising of Ekiti State.
“Let us not witness a repeat.”
Secondus advised the APC government to take a queue from the gubernatorial primaries of the PDP in the state and conduct the Ekiti State election creditably.
He said: “What the PDP did in the gubernatorial primaries in Ekiti is what is expected from a rebranded PDP where there would be no more impunity, no more imposition of candidates.
“Our advice to the President and his party is to behave like PDP when it lost, accept defeat and go home.”
The statement said former President Goodluck Jonathan and four PDP governors of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Gombe States – Okezie Ikpeazu, Emmanuel Udom, Neysom Wike and Ibrahim Dankwambo respectively – graced the occasion.
All the state governors spoke and eulogized the host Governor Ayo Fayose for doing much with meagre resources.
Governor Fayose in his remarks assured the people of the state that the PDP candidate in the July 14 poll, Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka, would not only win but go further to do well and even better than him.