Ekiti 2018: Remove Oni from NWC, Faparusi tells APC

A member of the seventh House of Representatives and governorship aspirant in Ekiti State, Bamidele Faparusi, has promised to join forces with other like-minded people to prevent some All Progressives Congress leaders from relegating Ekiti South Senatorial District in the politics of the state.

For the party’s National Working Committee to keep its integrity intact before and after the primary, Faparusi demanded that a former Ekiti State governor and the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the party, Segun Oni, should immediately relinquish his position, having joined the governorship race.

He spoke in Ode Ekiti, Gbonyin Local Government Area of Ekiti State on Wednesday, while reacting to Oni’s expression of interest to vie for the APC governorship ticket in the state.

Faparusi said he suspected conspiracy from some powerful leaders in the state and beyond to perpetually keep the people of the area from having a shot at the governorship seat.

The APC leader said it would be tantamount to neo-colonialism for the people of Ekiti South Senatorial District to be treated like second-class citizens in their own state by being denied governorship position 21 years after the state was created.

Stating that he had enormous respect for Chief John Odigie Oyegun-led NWC, Faparusi, however, expressed fears that the primary would not be transparent if Oni was still a member of the party’s NWC.

“Our party is bigger than any individual and the party should not allow itself to be put to disrepute by Oni and his cohorts.”

Faparusi argued that aspirants from the Ekiti South Senatorial District had the wherewithal to win a free, fair and transparent primary.

He, however, argued that this might be guaranteed if Oni continued to function as the National Deputy Chairman of the APC.

“I therefore wish him well in his constitutional but immoral pursuits of his self-serving governorship ambition. But it has to be reminded that one doesn’t win election through fantasy or arm-chair analysis.

“I pray that God will grant him the fortitude to be able to absorb the shock that will be his fate at the primary.”