PDP Upholds Fayose’s Election As Party Candidate For Ekiti Election

Following last Saturday's primaries that produced ex-governor Ayo Fayose as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the June 21 Ekiti State governorship elections, the national leadership of the party yesterday declared amid protests from other aspirants, that Fayose remains PDP flag bearer for the highly anticipated poll.

A statement yesterday by National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, said, "The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has received the report of the Ekiti State Governorship Primary Electoral Committee.

"After thorough consideration of the report, the NWC approved the result and upheld the nomination of Ayo Fayose as the candidate of the PDP for the June 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State.

"The NWC commended the committee for the conduct of a peaceful and transparent exercise and urged all PDP members in the state, including the other aspirants to support the candidate of the party to ensure a successful outing at the guber election".

It would be recalled that 13 out of the 14 aspirants contesting for the sole ticket of PDP were clamouring for consensus but Fayose insisted that there must be primary election to test popularity of the aspirants and he eventually won.

However, the aspirants have faulted the process that threw up the ex-governor as PDP flag-bearer, with most of them alleging that it was manipulated in his favor, therefore, they called for the cancelation of the primary election and the adoption of a consensus candidate.

Reacting to the party's position, Fayose, who spoke through his aide, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, once more pleaded with those who lost out to put behind them issues before the primary and bury the hatchet, just as he urged them to join hands with him for the success of the party.

He said, "I wish to thank the PDP leadership and Mr. President for providing we the aspirants a level playground. I thank the party leadership for upholding my nomination. I promised with God helping me, I will deliver Ekiti State to PDP.

"To those who lost, am appealing to them to bury the hatchet and put the primary behind and lets work together for the party to win. The PDP umbrella is very wide and accomodating. I can assure them that nobody will lose and I will not victimise anybody. The interest of the party is far above any personal interest".