Dr Fayemi, who campaigned at Ifaki, Orin, Ora, Aaye, Ido, Osi, Ifisin, Igbole, Ilogbo, Usi and other communities in the council area, on Thursday, said the election was “an opportunity to reverse hunger, want, disease and hopelessness” he said had been the lot of the people in the hands of an anti-people administration in the state in over three years.
The former Minister of Mines and Steel Development gave the electorate in the communities the assurance that “hope is in the horizon again to take Ekiti State back to its prime of place in the South West and indeed Nigeria.”
Fayemi, who described the July 14 poll as “freedom election,” said he would “restore all the life-lifting empowerment schemes that were cancelled by Governor Ayodele Fayose to allow Ekiti people earn a living to free themselves from want, poverty and disease.”
He also promised that all the local council development areas that the administration of Governor Fayose cancelled will return to bring government closer to the people for development.
He assured the people that it is not true that he would sack teachers and local government workers if he wins the election, saying “no teachers would be sacked while the local government workers have nothing to fear about job loss.”
He said: “Throughout my four years, how many teachers did I sack? Instead of sacking teachers, I increased their salaries three times within four years while I also paid core subjects and rural posting allowances to teachers to encourage them to deliver and live happily with their families unlike the current situation where teachers are being owed between six and 10 months while pensioners have not received their entitlements for close to a year.
“While we can point to many projects we did while in government between 2010 and 2014 to make life bearable for our people, PDP administration led by Fayose can’t point to any project in any town except tales of woes by our people on salary payment defaults, students paying fees for WEAC, NECO other public examinations, which we fully paid for, including scholarships,” he said.
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He said to go back to the abundance of the past, members should go back to their units to ensure victory in the election.
He assured them of security, saying the unlawful arrests and harassment by the police in 2014 will not be allowed.
In almost all the communities visited, hundreds of PDP top members defected to APC citing greed, selfishness and undemocratic conduct of the governor.
At Igbole-Ekiti, Isaac Idowu led the entire Prince Adedayo Adeyeye Movement (PAAM) structure to defect to APC. An appreciative old woman led scores of women to thank Fayemi for providing them succour through payment of monthly social security stipend to stay alive.
At Ifaki-Ekiti country home of former Governor Segun Oni, who joined Fayemi on the campaign trail, the APC’s standard-bearer thanked Ifaki people for their unflinching support and pledged that he would ensure the development of the town and welfare of its people.
Mammoth crowds attended the rally at Ido-Ekiti where Cyril Fasuyi popularly called the “GOC of Ido Osi Politics, led who is who in Ido politics to defect to APC.
He described Fayose as a selfish politician who fraudulently schemed him out of the House of Representatives contest in 2014, vowing that the governor would pay for his undemocratic and callous conduct to members of his party who worked for his success at poll but “paid them back with evil.”
He assured that 27,000 votes in Ido-Ekiti would be delivered to APC and vowed to take Fayose to court for taking Ido Osi allocations and misappropriated them for selfish motives.
All local government and ward executive members defected to APC, with the promise to deliver all the votes in Ido-Ekiti for APC.
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