Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State on Friday declared that he never regarded the defeated governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic party, Prof. Kolapo Olusola-Eleka as an enemy.
Rather, he said the major opposition party was free to challenge his victory at any stage of the court, and make useful suggestions for smooth running of his government.
Fayemi, however, said Eleka and the PDP were free to challenge his victory at the Supreme Court, in spite of his readiness to entertain contributions from the main opposition party.
The governor spoke in Ado Ekiti on Friday at a programme tagged “Meet Your Governor”.
Fayemi stated that he had never perceived Eleka as an arch enemy in spite of the petition he filed against his victory in the July 14, 2018 poll.
“I have never seen Prof Olusola Eleka as an enemy, but I have been seeing him as a co- contestant, so we won’t shy from approaching him to seek his advice on any issue we feel he could be of help for smooth running of our government.
”But this should not be misinterpreted to mean that we are trying to prevent him from seeking justice up to the supreme court; he is free to challenge us.
“The Appeal Court, on Thursday delivered its judgment, declaring that PDP has no evidence of rigging against us, so we are not afraid of being challenged.”
On the just concluded presidential, National and state assembly elections, which APC won wholesomely in the state, Fayemi denied the allegation that federal might and money were deployed to muzzle the opposition in the polls
”If you look at the outcome of the results, there was no local government where opposition did not score at least 30 percent in all the 16 local government areas
“So, the conduct had been adjudged free, fair and the outcome was credible going by what INEC said,” he said.
The governor added that his government would promote technical education to counter the rising unemployment in the state.
”We feel that skill acquisition is good in view of what we are experiencing in the labour market
”We must be able to convert our love in education to wealth and that is what we are out to do.
”We are also creating knowledge zone to make Ekiti a destination when it comes to knowledge and skills. About 117kms of roads will be constructed to link all the towns within that zone together.
“They call it knowledge Park in advanced nations and we are studying how we can pattern our own model after any of the countries that are already practising the policy.”
Fayemi added that he was committed to the re-establishment of the abolished Local Council Development Areas, the policy he initiated during his first term.
He said the government would soon conduct council elections in the state to bring development to the grassroots.
