Former Ekiti Governor, Ayodele Fayose, Emerges PDP Candidate For - TopicsExpress



          

Former Ekiti Governor, Ayodele Fayose, Emerges PDP Candidate For Ekiti Gubernatorial Election By SaharaReporters, New York Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has emerged as the Peoples Democratic Partys (PDP) governorship candidate in the state after winning the state’s party primaries with four hundred and sixty two (462) votes out of four hundred and seventy Seven (470) votes cast today. Mr. Fayose will now square off with the current governor, Kayode Fayemi in the Ekiti governorship election slated for June 21. Fayose who is also known as Oshokomole by his clan emerged the partys candidate after beating a former minister of Police Affairs Caleb Olubolade, who only managed to garner seven (7) votes and Mrs, Margaret Ogundipe, who scored just one (1) vote and while. Mr. Adedayo Adeyeye got three (3) votes. Meanwhile, Sahararepoters has learned that some party members in the state opposed to the candidature of Mr. Fayose might stage a protest at the partys headquarters along Ajilosun road, in Ado Ekiti later today. Mr. Fayose was kicked out of office as the Governor of Ekiti state after he was accused of corruption and murder. He has been facing corruption charges since 2007. Fayose emerges PDP Ekiti guber candidate by NAN Ado-Ekiti – A former governor of Ekiti State, MrAyo Fayose, was on Satuday declared winner of the PDP governorship primaries in the state. The News Agency of Nigeria,(NAN) reports that Fayose emerged winner with 462 votes out of a total of 477 votes cast. Leader of the PDP panel which conducted the primaries Dr Peter Odili announced that immediate past Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade scored 7 votes. Odili said that Mr Dayo Adeyeye came third with 3 votes while Mrs Modupe Ogundipe came fourth with one vote. He said a total of 544 delegates were accredited for the exercise, out of which four votes were voided. Shortly after his announcement as candidate of the party, Mr Ayo Fayose said he would justify the confidence reposed in him by “wrestling power from the incumbent governor Kayode Fayemi of APC”. He called on other aspirants, who contested, to join him in the task ahead and forget their differences. Reacting to Fayose’s victory, some aspirants dissociated themselves from the exercise and called on the President and national leadership of PDP to declare the primaries as illegal, null and void. Sen. Gbenga Aluko, who spoke on behalf of retired Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade, Chief Abiodun Aluko, Mrs Modupe Ogundipe and Chief Dayo Adeyeye claimed that Fayose was not qualified to contest. They further claimed that the list of delegates was doctored in favour of Fayose. NAN reports that the entire Ado-Ekiti township went agog as soon as Fayose was announced as the winner of the primaries. Many supporters came out in a carnival like procession along major roads to mark Fayose’s victory at the primaries. Hundreds of people, including market men and women, Okada ridders, transporters as well as school children trooped to the streets to catch a glimpse of Fayose singing songs of praise. NAN reports that voting commenced at 12:05 p.m amidst tight security by combined team of regular and mobile policemen, the State Security Service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps. Addressing the delegates before the exercise, the leader of the PDP panel, Peter Odili, commended security agents for providing adequate security at the venue. He said that primary option became necessary because President Goodluck Jonathan and the new National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu believed in internal democracy and the voice of the people. He said that a total of 544 delegates from the 177 wards were to vote in the primaries while 15 aspirants were recognised by Abuja as qualified to participate in the exercise. The state Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Alhaji Halilu Pai led the team of INEC officials to monitor the primaries. The Police Commissioner in the state, Mr Felix Uyanna, led men and officers of the command to provide security for the exercise. (NAN) UPDATE: Accused of stealing N416 million Ekiti funds, Fayose emerges PDP governorship candidate Premium Times Other aspirants kicked against Mr. Fayose’s candidacy. A former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, whom an anti-graft agency says stole at least N416 million public funds while in office, is to be the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the June 21 governorship election in the state. Mr. Fayose was on Saturday declared winner of the PDP governorship primaries in Ekiti. Mr. Fayose emerged winner with 462 votes out of a total of 477 votes cast. The leader of the PDP panel which conducted the primaries, Peter Odili, announced that the immediate past Minister of Police Affairs, Caleb Olubolade, scored 7 votes. Mr. Odili, a former Rivers State governor, said that Dayo Adeyeye came third with 3 votes while Modupe Ogundipe came forth with one vote. He said a total of 544 delegates were accredited for the exercise, out of which four votes were voided. Even though he seeks to govern Ekiti again, Mr. Fayose is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for stealing state funds during his initial stint as governor (2003-2006). Stealing from the state In December, a principal prosecution witness in the trial of Mr. Fayose told a Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, that Mr. Fayose lied on his asset declaration. The witness, Abubakar Aliyu Madaki, told the court that the former governor lied in his asset declaration when he claimed that he had two buildings in Iyaganku area of Ibadan, Oyo State. “We wrote a letter to the Code of Conduct Bureau, and in its reply, it was stated that in the asset declaration form that Fayose filled, that he claimed he built a house in the year 2004 to 2006. This is not true because in the course of investigation, it was discovered that what he earlier declared in 1998, that he had a two-storey building, was a lie, as he did not own a plot of land as at then”, he said. In addition, Mr. Madaki told the court that Mr. Fayose also claimed in his asset declaration that he had N100 million (One hundred Million naira) in an account with the former Bank PHB (now keystone bank). “When we conducted our investigation, it was discovered that the said account belong to People’s Democratic Party and the balance in the account was less than N50, 000 (Fifty thousand Naira) as against the claimed N100 million.” Mr. Madaki further told the court that among issues raised in the petitions received by the EFCC against Mr. Fayose was the construction of a poultry project in Ekiti State. The 16 local government councils of the state contributed about N400 million for the poultry project and about N400 million came from the state government for the four designated centres for the project. The EFCC witness said that N300 million was released for the construction of the Poultry Farm headquarters in Afao, Ekiti State. The project was contracted to Biological Concept Limited. The Chairman of the company, Gbenga James, was invited and questioned on why only four out of the alleged 20 poultry projects were successfully completed. Further investigations as well as documents recovered from the house of one Mr. Wale, a friend of Mr. James, revealed what the chunk of the money was expended on. According to Mr. Madaki, among the documents recovered from Wale’s house was a cheque book. “From the cheque book, we discovered that about N9.5million was used to construct Fayose’s building in Ibadan; a particular amount was used to purchase a brand new Mercedes Benz for the accused’s mother in Ibadan. Also, there was an acknowledgement of $50,000 that Fayose instructed James to give to Mrs. Olujimi, a former deputy governor of the state. Also, some amount was paid into Feyi Fayose and Moji Fayose accounts respectively. Wale explained that he got hold of the document from his friend, James, who kept it in his custody”. Mr. Madaki further told the court that N150 million was used by James to purchase a battery cage for Evians Specialist, a company belonging to James. Mr. Fayose has denied stealing any funds while in office. Despite the ongoing prosecution, however, Mr. Fayose emerged the PDP candidate. Should he win the June election, he would enjoy immunity from prosecution after he is sworn-in based on Section 308 of the Nigerian constitution. The case would then be stalled until he leaves office. I’ll defeat Fayemi Shortly after his announcement as candidate of the party, Ayo Fayose said he would justify the confidence reposed in him by “wrestling power from the incumbent governor Kayode Fayemi of APC”. He called on other aspirants, who contested, to join him in the task ahead and forget their differences. Reacting to Mr. Fayose’s victory, some aspirants dissociated themselves from the exercise and called on the President and national leadership of PDP to declare the primaries as illegal, null and void. Gbenga Aluko, who spoke on behalf of Mr. Olubolade, Abiodun Aluko, Modupe Ogundipe and Dayo Adeyeye claimed that Mr. Fayose was not qualified to contest. They further claimed that the list of delegates was doctored in favour of Mr. Fayose. Ado-Ekiti township went agog as soon as Mr. Fayose was announced as the winner of the primaries. Many supporters came out in a carnival like procession along major roads to mark Mr. Fayose’s victory at the primaries. Hundreds of people, including market men and women, Okada riders, transporters, as well as school children trooped to the streets to catch a glimpse of Mr. Fayose singing songs of praise. The voting Voting commenced at 12:05 p.m. amidst tight security by a combined team of regular and mobile policemen, the State Security Service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps. Addressing the delegates before the exercise, Mr. Odili commended security agents for providing adequate security at the venue. He said that primary option became necessary because President Goodluck Jonathan and the new National Chairman of the PDP, Adamu Mu’azu, believed in internal democracy and the voice of the people. He said that a total of 544 delegates from the 177 wards were to vote in the primaries while 15 aspirants were recognised by Abuja as qualified to participate in the exercise. The state Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Halilu Pai, led the team of INEC officials to monitor the primaries. The Police Commissioner in the state, Felix Uyanna, led officers of the command to provide security for the exercise. Mr. Fayose is expected to be the main challenger to the incumbent governor, Kayode Fayemi, of the All Progressives Congress in the June 21 governorship election.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 18:38:19 +0000

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