The Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has said he cannot join the All Progressives Congress even if he had to dump the Peoples Democratic Party.
Fayose, who spoke at a gathering in Ado-Ekiti, said the practice of use and dump adopted by the leadership of the APC would not allow him to contemplate moving into the party.
The governor in a press statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday, cited the case of the National Leader of the APC, Senator Bola Tinubu, who he said, worked hard for the victory of the APC in the 2015 general elections but was allegedly abandoned by those he helped to put in power.
“Some people have been making overtures to me to join the APC, but I cannot join them because of how they have repaid somebody like Asiwaju Tinubu. He worked and helped the party to secure victory but he has been dumped. That is not a party I would be interested in joining.
“One thing I would not allow is for anybody to rubbish our leaders in the South-West. Our leaders, including Asiwaju Tinubu, must be accorded their due respect, as any attempt to rubbish them will be taken as a slap on the entire Yoruba race,” he added.
The clarification by the governor came on the heel of the crisis rocking the PDP at the national level in which Ahmed Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff were locked in battle over the national chairmanship seat of the party.
The governor promised that his administration would complete the rehabilitation of the federal road that links Ado to Itawure before the burial of the late military governor of the old Western Region, Maj. Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo.
He also promised to rehabilitate the Ifaki-Omuo Road, another Federal Government road, to make motoring in the state more pleasurable.
On the need to ensure coordinated development of the state, Fayose said a master plan for Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, would be worked out.
He noted that the government would need the support of landlords and property owners, as the government would not want a situation whereby indiscriminate physical development would later turn the town to an eyesore.
