The National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has disclosed that the party has not endorsed any candidate for the governorship election slated for July in Ekiti State. Oyegun spoke yesterday in Benin through his Political Aide, Soni Idahagbon.
He said there was no truth in the claim that a recent visit to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, in company of a former governor of Ekiti State, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, was an endorsement of Fayemi.
Oyegun said, “Fayemi is a minister in the president’s cabinet and a former governor of Ekiti State; and Adebayo is also a former governor of the state.
They could have gone to discuss development issues pertaining to the state,” the statement said. He said the party had not endorsed any candidate in Ekiti and that it would give all the contestants a level-playing ground, adding that whoever emerged winner in an open contest would be the party’s candidate.
“The APC is a democratic party, we are not dictatorial or nocturnal in all our dealings. When you talk of a consensus candidate, you talk of the common decision of all the contestants to pick on one person, not that any leader will come and impose a candidate against the will of the party delegates who are entitled to their votes.
“If I didn’t impose a candidate in my state, Edo, and in other states where primary elections had been conducted by our party; if the president had not imposed anybody in those states, why should we do such in Ekiti?” he asked.
