Ekiti 2018: Buhari Wont Influence Choice Of APC Gubernatorial Candidate – Aluko

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By; OLADELE ADEDAYO, Ado-Ekiti
As the Ekiti State Gubernatorial election billed for July 14th this year gradually approaches, a former  Senate Deputy Chief Whip and Governorship hopeful, Senator Gbenga Aluko, has assured other aspirants that President Muhammadu Buhari has no vested interest in who becomes the  candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC)  in the party’s governorship primaries in the state.
Aluko, who has been a political ally to President Buhari since 2003, said he knows the country’s number one citizen was too disciplined and
cautious to rig the primary  in  favour of any aspirant.
On the recent appointment of 24 Ekiti APC chieftains into the federal
boards, agencies and parastatals by President Buhari, Aluko said the
gesture confirmed that the president has tremendous respect for the state  and southwest in general.
The party has over 40 aspirants jostling for the ticket to fly the party’s flag during the July 14, 2018 governorship poll.
Addressing the 2,600  APC delegates from the 177 wards across Ekiti in his Ode-Ekiti countryhome on Tuesday, Aluko said  he neither wavered nor rattled by the rumoured governorship ambition of the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and  that of former governor Segun Oni, who had already declared for the coveted seat.
He said he had visited all the wards to meet with the delegates to
sell his agenda for the party and Ekiti and that he could boast of
over 50  per cent support that  comfortably puts him in a  good stead to be able to  defeat any contestant.
“I have been President Buhari’s political associate since 2003 when it was not even political safe and wise to support any other party other than the Alliance for Democracy in the southwest. I knew him to be too disciplined and those thinking of his interference in Ekiti primary should bury such thought.
“We did primaries in Edo, Ondo and Anambra and I think the party tried
its best to ensure transparency and whoever thinks he will be imposed
is wasting his time.
“Aside from this, I am the only aspirant who has built a  vibrant
industry in Ekiti. The industry worth over N1.5 billion that generates jobs for over 100 youths,this is also additional advantage”.
On Fayemi’s rumoured governorship ambition, Aluko said: “It is still at the realm of rumour  and I don’t deal with conjecture. Former governor Fayemi has not openly declared, so it is still a rumour.
“Dr. Fayemi is a former governor and now a Minister and I don’t think he will be afraid to declare openly that he is interested and  if he eventually declares, we will all go into the race as one big lovely
family”, he said.
Aluko expressed confidence that the party will wrestle power from
Governor Ayodele Fayose in the coming election.
“Dr. Fayemi presented himself for a re-election in 2014 and was deprived of that right,because the government of that time didn’t give a level playing ground but the coming election will be different and APC will record a landslide victory”, he boasted .

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