2014 Election: We Are Not At War In Ekiti State – Kayode Fayemi Replies VP Namadi Sambo

The Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has described as unfortunate, a statement reportedly made by Vice-President Namadi Sambo, that the ‘Ekiti State election is a war’ after he was named as the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign committee for Ekiti and Osun States governorship elections.

Fayemi, who spoke with journalists in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, at the weekend, urged Sambo to withdraw the statement, while assuring the people that he hopes to take him on over the statement.

“Quite frankly, my immediate reaction when I saw the statement from the vice-president was disbelief until I eventually read it in about five newspapers and saw that the language was consistent and that the reports are not different in all the papers. I was not going to believe it because the vice-president is someone I relate with very well.

“The vice-president has every right to push for his party in any election. That is his legitimate right but to have said what the media reported him to have purportedly said was quite unfortunate because we are not at war in Ekiti State.

“We have been here three and a half years of peace – one of the most peaceful states in this country today. So for somebody who occupies one of the highest offices in the land as our vice-president to reduce the importance of his office and promote insecurity – either directly or by subterfuge – and in this case, it is pretty much directly and it wasn’t used figuratively, he used it in a matter of fact that he was going to a war front,” he noted.

Fayemi said: “I think the vice-president really ought to withdraw the statement and reassure Nigerians that the agenda for Ekiti State election is not going to be determined in Aso Rock but by the people of the state because it is a referendum on the performance of the current government in the state; it is not a national election. It should not be reduced to a national election. So that would be my reaction to the unfortunate remark of the vice-president.”
He said the statement reminds him of former, President, Olusegun Obasanjo’s “do-or-die” statement, “which is really unbecoming of the person who occupies the number two office in the land.