The Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has urged Ekiti people to learn from daily killings by herdsmen in All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled states of Benue, Plateau, Zamfara, Kaduna and Nasarawa, saying voting APC in the July 14 election is invitation to chaos, killing, raping of people’s wives and daughters by the killer herdsmen which the APC allegedly harboured .
Fayose stated this during a meeting with teachers, civil servants and local government workers in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday.
In a press statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, the governor called on Ekiti people to reject APC and its candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to avert Ekiti becoming another Benue, Plateau, Zamfara and Kaduna States where the number of widows and orphans are increasing daily.
The governor said since the killings started, the federal government had not been able to stop it and the governors who belong to the APC were being careful not to offend the Presidency.
“We all can see how the herdsmen have continued to daily kill, maim and rape innocent citizens. Even toddlers are not spared.
“In Zamfara State for instance, Governor Abdulaziz Yari, who is also the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, recently said he was resigning as the Chief Security Officer of his state. The truth is that the governors know what to do but cannot do it because they don’t want to offend the Presidency.
“In Benue, burial of people killed by the herdsmen has become a daily occurrence. Many communities have been deserted and people now live in
IDP camps and the governor has resigned to fate because it is an APC state.
“When the killer herdsmen invaded the farm of Chief Olu Falae, setting it ablaze, the governor couldn’t do anything because he did not want to offend the Presidency that helped him to power.
“In Kaduna, another APC state, the killer herdsmen and bandits are slaughtering the people like fowl and the government cannot stop it. This is for you to know that there is no APC controlled state where the herdsmen have not become terror to the people,” he said.
Fayose asked: “Is this the kind of situation you want in Ekiti? Of course, the answer is No. I am very sure people can now see the difference between the PDP government and the APC. The PDP was in power for 16 years and the security never became so moribund as it is now under the Buhari administration. The government is now noted for condemning but cannot stop the killings. Only insensitive people will vote APC.
“The APC-controlled federal government has succeeded in producing more
widows, and orphans in three years of its existence than 58 years of Nigeria’s existence as a nation. Not even during the Nigerian civil war was this figure recorded.”
Fayose told the people that he did not want Ekiti to become another state of widows and orphans and urged them to reject the APC at the poll.
“The incursion of the herdsmen into the state to destroy farmlands and kill the people have been checked by my administration The APC government is not what you should welcome at all. If you allow APC to come and govern Ekiti State, you would have just invited to the state killers, rapists and plunderers of our commonwealth.
“If this happens, Fayemi, who believes it is the rigging of poll by the Presidency that can make him governor, would not do anything that can upset the Presidency,” he said.
The governor therefore charged the people of the state to vote Prof. Kolapo Olusola of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the next governor of the state.
