Gov. Emmanuel Canvass Unity Among Ekiti Guber Aspirants

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel has urged contestants in the just concluded gubernatorial primaries of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State to bury the hatchet and work together for the victory of the party in the state. Governor Emmanuel who was leader of the 5-man PDP primary election committee in Ekiti State gave the admonition while fielding questions with Government House correspondents at the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo, upon his return from the assignment.

He thanked the National Chairman and the National working Committee of PDP for an opportunity to serve the party, describing it as a privilege he cannot take for granted, expressing satisfaction with the integrity and conduct of the primary election.

The Governor who described the exercise as transparent, fair and credible, called on all participants in the contest to acknowledge the supremacy of the party and pull forces together to grab victory in the consequent general election as one party.

Hear him, “I think personally I’m satisfied that the process was credible and I also believe almost 100% of the people that watched it will give us credit that it was a very credible, transparent, free and fair election. My advice is, let all of them go back and work together. We have only one seat and only one person can occupy that seat. If after all what the party did at the NWC to accommodate all aspirants, the people then spoke and said this is the person we want to bear the flag of the party, I think all others should just join hands and work together. Party is supreme, let the party win then they can all sit down and talk”.

He described as false and speculative, insinuations of unfair treatment and disenfranchisement of some aspirants, maintaining that the process was void of malpractices and created no room for expression of ill behaviours that would have given grounds to discredit the exercise.

According to him, such insinuations were indications of pre-perceived defeat. He maintained that the committee had an authentic list from the National Working Committee which followed religiously, stressing that no single person voted that was not accredited and that there was none accredited that was not allowed to vote.

In his words, “Talking about Ekiti gubernatorial primaries, I’ve heard a whole lot; how some aspirants even before the process started, went to the press. …I think they felt they knew the outcome even before we went into the election. …Some of them came to make trouble but by the time they saw that there was no room for such trouble they knew there’s no way they could have made it”.

“All the aspirants gave us a very excellent mark for all the processes: from accreditation to voting, to sorting, to counting, even to declaration of result. Even after that we gave them opportunity to speak of they were satisfied. We also had to make sure one of the international TV stations beamed it live so everybody could see the processes” he added.

The Governor cationed the public to be wary of politician who promote violence as means to grab power and sued for peaceful politicking towards the 2023 polls.

Hear him, “As we go into 2023, people will give peace a chance. If you want to serve the people, you can’t serve the people with a gun. Whoever carries a gun to serve is not going to serve the people but himself. If you want to serve the people and you don’t want peace, there is an undertone we don’t know. I think we need to unravel that and question your real intensions.”

The Ekiti PDP Guber primaries which was keenly contested by twelve apirants had Hon. Bisi Kolawale emerging as winner with 671, edging out his immediate runner up, Segun Oni, who scored 330. Bisi Kolawale is a former member of the National Assembly 2007-2011, served as Environment Commissioner in Fayose’s administration among other political offices held.

Significantly, all the aspirants who participated in the primaries have all congratulated the winner and pledged to work for the success of the PDP in the forthcoming Ekiti Governorship election.