Fayose: Ekiti people don’t want Oni to return    10/3/2009
     

From Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado-Ekiti and Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

Former Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose yesterday ruled out the return of his successor, Mr. Olusegun Oni, who was sacked by the Court of Appeal on February 17.

He said on a radio programme in Ado-Ekiti that majority of the people did not want Oni to return to office.

According to Fayose, he will not go against the wishes of the people.

He spoke just as he took possession of his personal property trapped in the Government House following his forced exit in 2007.

The Acting Governor, Mr Olatunji Odeyemi, released the personal property to him.

The government handed over three vehicles to him, which, he said Oni had allegedly refused to release to Fayose, despite several representations made to the sacked governor.

The vehicles are a convertible Mercedes Benz SLK 320, a Jaguar car and a Kia Optima car, which Fayose showed reporters in the front of the Government House.

Fayose criticised the failure of the Oni administration to release his personal effects and thanked Odeyemi whose regime he likened to that of the former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar.

Fayose, who had earlier spoken on a live phone-in programme on Radio Nigeria Progress FM, Ado-Ekiti, said going by the feelings of the people, Oni should "consider himself a goner who has bidden a goodbye to the Government House."

He said he would monitor the re-run, especially in Iworoko and Are in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area.

He said Oni was having difficulties moving freely in Ado-Ekiti and other parts of the state, a difficulty he traced to the fact that "Oni was not the popular choice of Ekiti people at the April 14, 2007 governorship election."

Although he said he had not made up his mind on whom to support in the re-run, Fayose added that he would not support Oni who, according to him, has been rejected by the people.

He added that, a meeting will be held latest by March 30, to decide who, between Oni and the Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, he and his supporters should back.

Fayose said: "We are not going to allow any rigging in the forthcoming re-run election and we are urging INEC to be fair to all parties. We don’t need police at the re-run election because the election will be one-man-one vote and the votes of our people will count this time around.

"But I am maintaining that a government that has not done anything for the people and done wrong to the people will not return to the seat of power. The person loved by the people is different from somebody hated by the people, I will not tell you who will win the election but Oni is gone already.

"I know I can’t contest in the re-run, but I will support the man Ekiti people want to elect as their governor and I want to assure you that the candidate that I will support will get at least 80 per cent and the person I don’t support cannot get more than 20 per cent and if he gets more than that, I will leave politics and become a full-time farmer and hunter.

"They said they want to arrest me, let us wait and see how that could be possible because we are not in the era of Obasanjo. If the people of the state say they don’t want you, you can’t impose yourself on them and we will work with Ekiti people to make the change they have craved for possible.

"We are not going to remove only Oni but we are going to remove (Senator) Arise too because after Oni has been disgraced at the coming election, Arise too will follow him when the Appeal Court has carried out the wishes of the people of the state."

The AC in Osun State has warned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to allow the court-ordered re-run election to hold without any acrimony, or violence.

In a statement in Osogbo by its Director of Research and Strategy, Hon Sunday Akere, the party accused the leadership of the PDP of deliberately orchestrating violence in Ekiti to cause tension.

Citing the invasion of the rallies of Fayemi at Ijan Ekiti and Ise Orun last week by people led by the ousted Deputy Governor, Dr. Sikiru Lawal, Osun AC said the actions should not be mistaken for a happenstance since the PDP was bent on scuttling the re-run election if it discovered it could not win.

Wondering why thugs wielding guns, cutlasses and other weapons should be allowed into venues of rallies of rival political parties after legal police permit had been given for such, Osun AC said if the PDP were not checked, the party could precipitate a crisis that would lead to the declaration of emergency rule, which will hamper the conduct of the re-run.

It also urged the police and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be neutral during the re-run.

The Yoruba Youth Alliance (YYA) and Yoruba Progressive Youth Forum (YPYF) have also urged INEC to disallow rigging in the forthcoming re-run election.

The groups, after a meeting yesterday in Abuja, warned all stakeholders against rigging.

A statement by the National Leader of the YYA Mr. Jackson Lekan Ojo and Leader of the YPYF, Mr. Abiodun Ogunmuyiwa, said that they were still watching the outcome of election appeals in Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Rivers states.

http://www.thenationonlineng.com/dynamicpage.asp?id=79232

Damn right! Dat guy doznt deserve 2 enta again. He did nufn bt plunge d poor lil state into tension and constant fear. But fayose should stop talkin as if he were God. Haba,a lil modesty would do now.

Na so Fayose becomes a godfather for Ekiti and he his barely 47 or 48

what was fayose acvhievement as a Governor of ekiti state?he looted and looted

i am surprised that pple of Ekiti will even allow this guy to talk, not to talk of making him who decide what they want and what they dont want. he now has the mouth to talk about a governor that did nothing for the people and yet he did nothing either for the years he was in office.
How come the pple of that state has so short memory?
And we wonder why our democracy is all messed up?

Fayose is right about the visionless Oni's return cos if the re-run election is conducted based on free and fair. Fayemi will run Ekiti State better than Oni, so let people's choice be allowed. Wuru wuru, mago mago and wayo Iwu Maurice should take note.

fayose pls wake up from your slumber you are a hunter in real life.

ode remo:

fayose pls wake up from your slumber you are a hunter in real life.

Hunter of what my broda

Fhemmmy:

i am surprised that pple of Ekiti will even allow this guy to talk, not to talk of making him who decide what they want and what they dont want. he now has the mouth to talk about a governor that did nothing for the people and yet he did nothing either for the years he was in office.
How come the pple of that state has so short memory?
And we wonder why our democracy is all messed up?

Who says Fayose is speaking for Ekiti people?
This is democracy and everyone is entitled to open their mouths and yack rubbish, so fayose is exercising that right,
Fayose's case is just like the pot calling the kettle black, THEY ARE BOTH ROGUES and very soon both of them and others like them will be swept off Ekiti by HURRICANE CHANGE!

[center]IT'S WELL[/center]

Lets hope this election will not result in another state of emergency in Ekiti as both parties are going on an all out war.

This Fayose dey talk too much.

It's not that Ekiti people dont want Oni to return, They Dont want anybody from the LOOTING PARTY
called PDP, Fayose inclusive.

Well am not surprised that the noise maker is at it again.it goes a long way to show the moral decadence in nigeria at the moment,i wonder where we are heading if people like this are regarded as leaders.thank God he knows he is a hunter looking for more funds to loot may God save us.

Too much of book is the problem of Ekiti state.