Why PDP is confident of victory in Ondo guber ­- Fadaka

Mr. Ayo Fadaka, is the Zonal Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for South West Zone. In this interview, he spoke on the readiness of its party for the Ondo governorship election slated for October 10; his assessment of the APC-led administration in the state and the party’s concerns ahead of the forthcoming […]

Mr. Ayo Fadaka, is the Zonal Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for South West Zone. In this interview, he spoke on the readiness of its party for the Ondo governorship election slated for October 10; his assessment of the APC-led administration in the state and the party’s concerns ahead of the forthcoming governorship election, among other issues.

 

The gubernatorial election in Ondo State is coming up on October 10, 2020; how prepared are you?

For the past four years, we knew there would be an election and we have been working towards that for over a year now. You would have observed that for well over a year now, there had been aspirants from our party traversing the state declaring their intentions of becoming the governorship candidate of our party. To that extent, mobilization for the election has begun in earnest in the PDP. We are prepared for that election. We are waiting fervently for that day to come and we are also watching the preparation of INEC for the election. Elections in Nigeria in recent times have seriously been compromised. INEC in Nigeria has not been living above board in most cases and same goes for the security agencies that have been used by the APC to compromise elections results. We are going to see how these things would play out this time around.

Do you think you have what it takes to defeat the incumbent governor should he emerges flag bearer of his party?

Once the election is free and fair, I can assure you that the incumbent will have no day longer in office than his tenure. That is to say, there is no way he can win a one man, one vote in Ondo State. I said this because; there is a disconnection between the governor and people of the state. The programmes he said he had executed as governor are not the types that the people of Ondo State have enjoyed under successive governors. Under Governor Mimiko for instance, maternal health care was free and so it was in the area of social amenities. When Governor Olusegun Agagu of blessed memory was the governor in the state, it was a period of prosperity; the state prospered and there was prudence in the management of public finances. Every month, the amount of money that came to the coffers of the state was made known to the people. But under the APC-led administration of Governor Akeredolu, nobody knows how much the state has spent. Most of the projects that you see Akeredolu doing are slammed with bogus amount. For instance, the Ore overhead bridge which is 100 meter long with in lays and outlays on both

sides of the road is said to be gulping a whopping 65billion naira! We consider that stealing of the people’s commonwealth. The governor is not standing in the good books of the people and therefore, it will make it easy for us with good preparation to beat him in the next election.

Are you really on ground in the state as a party?

As a political party, we are strong and very much on ground. In the last presidential election, our candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar defeated Buhari . In the senatorial election, we also beat APC by clinching two of the three senatorial seats and we achieved similar feat in the House of Reps election. We know we will win because we won them in that last year election. It makes it easier for us because APC is not a united force right now. We have forces in APC today that are at each other’s throat; forces that do not see eye to eye, working at parallel. When a house is divided against itself, it will collapse. We have been out of government for twelve years but we are still strong enough to beat APC in the state.

How would you rate the performance of the present APC government under Governor Rotimi Akeredolu?

Woeful! Let me take education sector for instance; for the very first time in this state, pupils were being made to pay school fees under whatever guise before they go to school. This is far from what we used to know in this side of the country. Years before now, we were given free education in the primary school but Akeredolu’s government is now making pupils to pay fees in whatever guise. Aside that, the last time anybody paid school fees in our secondary schools was in 1979. Today, secondary school students pay school fees.It has not happened since 1979, but it is happening now under the Akeredolu’s government. In our state’s university, for instance; under Agagu, students were paying

N25, 000 and Mimiko came and retained it but now, Akeredolu came and increased it to N150,000. In the sciences, we heard it is even up to N250, 000. So, he has not done well and they should be set for his failure in the next election. Aside from that, the government is quick to tell us it is constructing roads everywhere in the state. The success of any government is measured in the area of the number of kilometers of road constructed and tarred. Governor Olusegun Agagu succeeded in tarring 5,000 kilometers of road. Mimiko did over 2,500 km. Akeredolu is yet to do 200 km of road as we speak. He has failed. The government has not brought any innovation at all.

He built no market; he built no school; it is the only government that nothing new can be associated with. It is a shame that we could be at this abysmal low level at this time in our nation.

Do you have concerns in respect of the coming election?

Of course, we have our concerns. Elections under Buhari are not elections. INEC as an institution is not that independent to conduct elections again. Even when INEC sets out in all seriousness to conduct free and fair elections, the security agencies are always there at the order of the executive to perpetrate actions that compromise outcome of the election. Take a good look at Osun State for instance; when we went for the election in Osun, when it was getting obvious that the PDP was winning the elections, the INEC ad-hoc staff began to steal votes and added illegal votes for APC to be sure that the governing party wins the election.

Where it is not possible for them to add votes to the APC, they will under count our own votes. For instance, I may not be able to remember the particular local government in Osun State now where an INEC officer, a professor from FUTA deducted over 1,000 votes from our votes but it took the eagle eyes of our agent at the collation centre to bring to the notice of the entire world that our votes have been stolen in that local government. I remember vividly that in Olorunda local government, APC votes were inflated from what it was at the polling unit and the local government collation centre when it got to INEC.

Those are the types of challenges we are talking about. In Kogi, you saw what the security agencies did to compromise the election. Police literarily turned itself to an air force, bombarding and shooting at voters from the sky, all in the bid to compromise the election for APC. That was something that has not happened in the history of our nation before. As it is, we have INEC and the police specially to contend with during this election on October 10, and we must say that with every sense of responsibility that we are prepared for them. We are using this opportunity to warn the federal government to ensure that it encourages the police and its officers to play by the rules; if they don’t play by the rules, they are playing with fire as far as the people of this state are concerned. We will not sit idly and watch the APC compromise the October 10 election in Ondo State. It’s going to be fire for fire.

How about the gladiators seeking to fly the PDP’s flag?

We have a number of people that are jostling to be our flag bearer in this election. We have some of them that are very serious and we also have those that are just bidding their time or just playing. But we can say from the serious to the mundane, we have about fourteen people jostling. Out of these numbers, there are some of them that are serious party men that can withstand anyone from the APC. One of them will eventually emerge as the candidate of the party but importantly, I must say that there is an understanding in our party today; whoever becomes our flag bearer after the primary will enjoy the supports of all party men including other aspirants in the contest. As a party, we would ensure that our primaries are seen to be honest, free and fair.

What is your position on the Amotekun regional security initiative of the south west governors?

Of course, we are absolutely in support of the Amotekun security initiative and I even want to say that sometimes last year, I issued a statement on behalf of the PDP in south west to examine how low we have sunken under the invasion by suspected herdsmen and bandits who took over our forest in that press statement. I urged our governors to take serious actions. I pointed out that they should first and foremost; see themselves as Yoruba men and women before political affiliations. Good enough, that advice is what I believe metamorphosed into the Amotekun initiative today. To that extent, we buy into it. I must say again that security is our business as a people. Our security is our business; we must all be seen to take actions that will address our security problems.