No anointed governorship candidate for Ekiti, says APC scribe

Political aide to National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Soni Idahagbon, yesterday dismissed speculations that the presidency had endorsed Kayode Fayemi as the party’s candidate for the July 22 governorship election in Ekiti State.

Idahagbon, who spoke in Benin City, noted that insinuations that Fayemi’s recent visit to President Muhammadu Buhari was an endorsement of his (Fayemi) for the governorship race were not true.

Fayemi, a former governor of the state and Minister of Mines and Steel Development, visited Buhari with Niyi Adebayo, also a former governor, to discuss development issues affecting the state.

“All I know is that there is no anointed candidate in Ekiti and I believe the President takes no special interest in any candidate. We will give all the contestants a level-playing field and whoever emerges winner in an open contest becomes the candidate for the APC.

“The APC is a democratic party, we are not dictatorial in any of our dealings. When you talk of a consensus candidate, you talk of the common decision of all the contestants to pick on one person.

“It is not that any leader will come and impose a candidate against the will of the party delegates who are entitled to their votes,” Idahagbon said.

However, the Ekiti Youth Forum, the youth arm of the APC, has urged the party’s delegates to look out for a young and credible candidate with brilliant ideas to help transform the state and move it to its new heights.

In a statement by its coordinator, Comrade Sam Alonge, the group said: “We want a break-away from the old politicians in Ekiti. We need technocrats who are well travelled and who can easily attract foreign investors as our new governor.”

Meanwhile, former governor of Ekiti State and Deputy National Chairman of the APC, Segun Oni, has said he would not leave the party whether or not he wins the governorship primaries in April.

Oni, in a statement by his media aide, Steve Alabi, wondered why he would contemplate defecting from the party when as number two man in the party, he receives defectors into the party.