APC, party of incurable propagandists — Oguntuase
The People’s Democratic Party, PDP chairman in Ekiti State, Gboyega Oguntuase, blows hot in this interview, describing APC as a party of liars and irredeemable propagandists, whose empty achievement would accord them disgraceful defeat in the Ekiti governorship election.
The APC has described the banning of Dr Fayemi and his Commissioner for Finance for 10 years as a joke taken too far and Governor Fayose as a jester?
What would a rascal say? Rascals would respond like that. They are rascals who do not recognise God and men. There is nothing strange about their utterances, they are children of perdition.
They also described the latest effort of Governor Fayose as an attempt to ambush Fayemi and deny him the opportunity of serving the state. What is your reaction to this?
Where is his popularity? A man that is horrifyingly hated by Ekiti people, a man whose personality has become repugnant to the generality of Ekiti people, is it the same person they are saying is popular? A man who left huge indebtedness that Ekiti is still battling with now? Is he the one they are saying is popular? The rascals can say anything; people who suffer from delusion can say anything.
Some leaders in your party, including Governor Ayodele Fayose have endorsed his Deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, as the sole candidate of your party for the 2018 governorship election, while the other five aspirants in the party have kicked against such move. How do you reconcile this?
There is nothing irreconcilable about it. First, you said endorsed candidate, was he endorsed by the party or some stakeholders? If anybody is endorsed by critical stakeholders, that does not stop primaries from holding. It is only indicative of a particular strategy of an aspirant. If it overwhelms others, it is unfortunate, but you too can look for those who would endorse you.
How do you ensure free and fair party primaries when the leader of the party, who is the governor, has already endorsed a candidate?
Let me correct you, the Governor is not the leader of the party but one of the leaders of the party, the chairman is the head of the party but we have leaders within the party and obviously, by virtue of his position, the governor is one of the critical leaders of the party. If you want me to mention more people, I would say the council of elders are part of the leaders of the party. I’m only saying that even if the governor endorses a particular candidate, even if council of elders too endorses a particular candidate, it does not mean that we don’t have other leaders.
Endorsement is not a sin, it becomes criminal and unconstitutional if there is an added provision that the party must not perform its duties of organising primaries. Then as to fairness, the governor of the state is not to organise the primaries, those critical stakeholders are not to organise the primaries, the primaries shall be organised by the state working committee and supervised by a national working committee, so I don’t know why they think there would not be fairness.
PDP, party of pathological liars — Olatunbosun
Director of Publicity of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ekiti State, Taiwo Olatunbosun, while responding to the PDP, described it as a party of pathological liars. Excerpts:
Your party has been described as a house of liars and covenant breakers, what is your take on this?
It is like the kettle calling the pot black. Let me say quickly, who is more noted for lying is it PDP or APC? PDP is a lying party, it is a party of pathological liars. Let me cite example of what I’m saying, sometime ago, Mr Fayose went to China, using our money, he pretended as if he was addressing people at an economic submit, whereas he was just at a train station. That was terrible.
At some point, he said President Buhari was brain dead, at a point Fayose denied ever taking loans, but the DMO office exposed his cheap lies of about N60 billion taken in the last three years. And in the payment of workers’ salaries, Fayose was always saying that he didn’t owe workers, until the workers themselves started talking.
APC is a party of democrats and I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that we have fulfilled reasonably, the cardinal programmes as promised to Nigerians in the area of addressing corruption, the security and economy. We have done that reasonably well; we have taken Nigeria out of recession.
Fayose and the PDP of course in Ekiti State should come out and tell us what his electoral promises to the people are. Is he even honest to the budgetary provision of the state? We are going to put a stop to all this wicked embezzlement of public funds being witnessed in Ekiti under Fayose.
What is your take on the banning of Fayemi from holding public office within and outside the state for 10 years by Governor Ayo Fayose?
I would just say simply that there is no place in the constitution of this country that empowers any legislative and executive arm of government to bar any citizen from holding public office. That decision can’t stand legal and constitutional scrutiny, either in content or intention. It is an arbitrary arrogation of power or authority to oneself; it shows that Fayose is not well lettered or tutored about the dictates of governance.
How will your party wriggle out of the huge number of aspirants jostling for the flag of APC without ruffling some feathers?
In a democracy, the best way to measure any popular political organisation is the number of members of such political parties and in the case of our preparation for 2018 governorship election, I can assure you that our party is fully prepared and the number of aspirants jostling for the ticket of the party should not worry anybody and it is of course a healthy development; it shows that APC is the party to beat. Besides, it is democratic, you cannot prevent anybody from pursuing a political goal.
To manage it, we have procedures, rules, guidelines and we must follow those guidelines strictly without any fear or favour.
