Ekiti 2018: Aspirant Reveals Who Tinubu Will Support

Agency ReporterApril 20, 2018

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An aspirant for the Ekiti governorship election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ayo Arise, has revealed who Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the party will support to emerge APC flag bearer.

Arise, who represented Ekiti North senatorial district in the 6th Assembly said Tinubu told him he would decide to support an aspirant, after the conduct of the party’s primary election in the state, slated for May 5.

The former lawmaker, who stated this while addressing journalists in Abuja, also revealed why President Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu are dominant actors in APC.

He said both the president and the former Lagos governor are contending camps in the party’s primary election slated for May 5.

According to Arise, “The President is our President and is the head of the party. For those of us who are Yoruba people, our leader and the leader of the party is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I don’t think that it is necessary for me to go and tell the President that I want to be governor of Ekiti.

“But if I have the opportunity to see him, I probably will do that. But I am not going to be spending time running to him because maybe what I will be asking him is to come and help me. Looking at him and his nature, I know he will prefer a free and fair primary.

“So, by going to him, I may be asking for special privilege. I want a free and fair election in Ekiti. I have been a victim of such leverage before when I ran in December 2006 for the primary. So, what I don’t what to be done to me, I don’t want it to be done to other people. So, I am advocating a very free and fair election.

“As of necessity, I must go and inform the leader of the party. Even if you are not in APC, and you are a Yoruba man and you look at the contribution of Asiwaju to that party, it is likely that you will give it to him because he has earned that leadership role.

“For me, I am one of those that cannot underestimate his influence. So, I have gone to see him on a number of occasions and he has told me what he would want to see because we are all his men. He wants to see who will be able to win the primary first before throwing his weight behind the person.”