Ayo Fayose, Ekiti state governor.
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, on Wednesday disagreed on the credibility of candidates the All Progressives Congress is fielding for the Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections.
The spokesperson for the PDP, Olisa Metuh, while briefing journalists in his office, had accused the APC of fielding candidates facing corruption charges, saying his party never acted that way for the 16 years it was in power.
He however cited an exception in Mr. Fayose, whose case he described as politically motivated.
Questioning the credibility of the APC candidates, Mr. Metuh argued that in other climes political parties take exceptions to candidates with corruption charges.
“We have never fielded any candidate facing corruption charge as governor,” he said.
“Elsewhere, political parties take exception to fielding people with corruption charges except if politically motivated like in the case of Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state.
“No party has ever fielded corrupt individuals for political offices like the APC.”
Mr. Metuh said the APC’s fielding of former Governors Timipre Sylva and Abubakar Audu as its flag-bearers in Bayelsa and Kogi states was inappropriate.
Mr. Metuh also said the PDP was “compiling a list of all APC governors-elect and candidates that are in court facing corruption charges” and would make the list available to Nigerians.
But Mr. Fayose, in a statement in Ado-Ekiti, took a different position, saying Messrs Audu Sylva remained qualified to contest the election until they are proven guilty
“I wish to state clearly that Alhaji Abubakar Audu has the right to contest,” Mr. Fayose said while debunking a statement credited to him that he queried the eligibility of the APC candidate.
He said the statement that Mr. Audu’s corruption case in court disqualified him from contesting the governorship election could not have been made by him.
Mr. Fayose further said that his statement in Lokoja during the grand finale of the PDP governorship campaign rally centred strictly on the need for free and fair election.
The governor said his comment had nothing to do with Mr. Audu, his former colleague, saying in law, every man is adjudged innocent until proven otherwise by a law court.
“That statement that he cannot contest was not made by me. What I said in Lokoja has nothing to do with Alhaji Audu and I am not contesting his eligibility,” he said.
”Alhaji Audu is my former colleague and I have a lot of respect for him. In law, every man is assumed innocent until proven otherwise by a law court.
“I equally went through a similar experience, I couldn’t have made such comment.”
Premium Times
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