Priscilla Ofunre, Ado-Ekiti
Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, on Friday, spread the olive branch to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the last election, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, urging him to join in building Ekiti that would be economically viable in the interest of the state as a whole.
Following the supreme court on Friday which dismissed Olusola’s appeal and declared Fayemi as the winner of the July 14, 2018 governorship poll.
Wild jubilations enveloped Ado-Ekiti the state capital, as news filtered into town that Fayemi won at the supreme court on the litigation filed against his reelection in 2018.
Fayemi defeated the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prof Kolapo Olusola in the election.
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Upon dissatisfaction, Olusola had approached the Election Petition Tribunal, claiming that the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), had rigged the poll in Fayemi’s favour.
However, Olusola lost at both the Tribunal and Appeal courts, before proceeding on appeal to the Supreme Court.
It was a twin celebration on Wednesday at the government house as Fayemi won the chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).
Fayemi, who just returned to Ekiti from Abuja, described Olusola as an accomplished Ekiti person going by what he had read and heard of him and that he was ready to work with him to move Ekiti higher.
“Prof Olusola Eleka is an illustrious Ekiti person. Though, I am not close to him, but with what I have heard and read about him, he is an accomplished Ekiti man.
“He had served this state as a Deputy Governor and having pursued his case to the supreme court, he should forget about party. He should come to Ekiti party, that is where we all belong, so that we can serve our people better and in a more beneficial way “, he said.
The governor, who described his appointment as NGF chairman and his court’s victory as signals of good things to come for Ekiti and the southwest .
Speaking further on the verdict, the governor said, “I have to give glory to God for finally bearing testimony to the fact that the election that brought me into office was credible and that the primary of my party was the best ever conducted by any party in the history of our nation.
“It also bears testimony to the fact that the so-called white papers which indicted me were meant for nowhere but a trash can.
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“The supreme court said the foundation trial courts did a yeoman’s job by saying the election in Ekiti was substantially compliant with the provisions of the law.
“Let me thank the supreme court for putting a finality to this endless litigation because distraction is bound to happen when you have endless cases in court”.
On his election as NGF chairman, Fayemi said: ” it was Ekiti that elected me governor, but being a NGF chairman won’t make me to withdraw from serving Ekiti.
“You can say Ekiti is in the eye of the storm, because I was elected NGF chairman to serve the nation, but there is no way I wont defend my people in whatever that is coming to states. It is not unlikely that I will argue for Ekiti when things like this happens.
” The NGF is a national role, I am just a first among equals”, he said.
