Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Ekiti governorship election, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has broken his silence on the incident and said he came within the whiskers of death with the other dignitaries at the party’s secretariat in Ado Ekiti, last Friday.
The APC had organised a rally to welcome Dr Fayemi to the state and dignitaries like Governor Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) of Ondo State; a former Minister of State for Works, Adedayo Adeyeye, who recently defected to the party from the PDP, and a former member of the House of Representatives, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, among others were at the rally.
A shooting by a policeman, described as “accidental discharge” by the police authorities, occurred as the rally was being concluded, injuring Bamidele and five other party faithful.
Speaking with newsmen on Tuesday, in Ado Ekiti, while visiting Adeyeye, Fayemi recalled that they would have been killed but for God’s intervention.
Fayemi said: ” “We thank God that we are alive. What do you think would have happened if Governor Akeredolu, Adeyeye, Bamidele and I had died?
It was possible for the bullets to have hit and killed all of us, but we thank God.
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“We pray that God just prevented it. The unprecedented crowd we saw at Ikere Ekiti and how people were rushing out shows that Ekiti people were determined to fight a liberation war against Governor Fayose.”
He said the electoral contest of July 14 would be the end of Governor Ayodele Fayose’s political reign in Ekiti, saying the party would work hard across the 177 wards to ensure that PDP was uprooted in the state.
The former Minister of Mines and Steel Development described Adeyeye’s defection from PDP to APC as “a big boost to the party,” saying “his parting ways with Fayose would help the reclamation struggle against the present
governor.”
He assured that Adeyeye was a respectable leader of the APC, who can’t be shortchanged in the political equation due to his political worth if APC eventually wins.
“Let me assure you that we are all equal in APC, there is nothing called defectors. We are going to reward people on how they deliver their wards and units,” Fayemi said.
Speaking after he had led members of his Prince Adedayo Adeyeye Movement (PAAM) to formally join the APC from PDP, Adeyeye said “we decided to join APC because the party nominated a good person like Dr Fayemi as its candidate. Dr Fayemi is highly educated and exposed, he is not crude like our brother, we are going to deliver our votes for him.
“As we speak today, Fayose is alone. He has no credible leader behind him. He is empty and naked and this coming election will expose his weakness.”
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