PDP accuses members of conniving with APC to frustrate rally in Ekiti as Fayose, State chairman, NASS candidates shun Atiku

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused some of its members in Ekiti State of conniving with the All Progressives Congress, APC, to frustrate its presidential rally in the State.

Newsflash Nigeria had earlier reported that the commercial vehicles and motorbikes were off the roads in Ado Ekiti, Ikere Ekiti and other local government areas of the state on Tuesday leaving inter and State commuters stranded.

It was gathered that the state government on Tuesday stopped all commercial vehicles from operating in order to frustrate the supporters of the PDP from attending the presidential rally in the state.

According to the report, the drivers’ union allegedly attributed the non-movement of vehicles to prayers being offered by its members on Tuesday in the state.

Many market women found it difficult to transport their goods to their various destinations and other residents could not commute easily due to the unavailability of commercial vehicles.

Some of the residents expressed worry that the reason commercial vehicles were not working, especially in the Ado Ekiti metropolis, Ikere Ekiti and other towns in the state is unknown.

One of the residents, Adefemi Ajayi, views that the development might be a result of the PDP presidential rally in the state.

Newsflash Nigeria gathered that most of the members of PDP from Ikere trekked to Ekiti Parapo Pavilion, Ado Ekiti where their PDP presidential candidate will be welcomed after the denial of transportation by the drivers union in the state.

Reacting, the PDP faulted some of its members in the state for conniving with the APC to frustrate its presidential rally.

The Spokesperson and Director, Public Affairs of the PDP Presidential Campaign Management Committee, Senator Dino Melaye, who gave the hint in a tweet on his official handle, alleged that the APC and some PDP members who are against the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar stopped all commercial vehicles from operating in the State during the rally.

He wrote, “As APC and some PDP members ‘collabo’ to stop all commercial vehicles from operating in Ekiti today, in an effort to frustrate our rally, people defied all challenges and walked kilometres to the Ekiti pavilion. Atiku magic”.

Meanwhile, some stakeholders of the party in Ekiti State, including a former governor of the State, Ayodele Fayose, acting PDP State Chairman, Lanre Omolase, and former governorship candidate, Bisi Kolawole were conspicuously absent from the presidential rally.

Others who were absent from the presidential rally include seven of the nine PDP National Assembly candidates and 20 of 26 House of Assembly candidates.

Only South Senatorial candidate, Biodun Olujimi and House of Representatives candidate from South Constiuency1, Henrich Akomolafe attended the rally.

Recall the PDP National Assembly candidates had rejected the inclusion of Social Democratic Party (SDP) members in the Presidential Campaign Council for the state on the condition that it could hurt their elections, said all entreaties to meet with Atiku over the development were shunned by the presidential candidate.

Atiku, in his address to the rally, assured that if elected in the February 25 election, his administration would deploy all resources to attract socio-economic development, adding that he would be deliberate in the construction of roads leading to Ekiti State beginning with the Ado-Akure Road.

The PDP presidential candidate said, “I am highly impressed with the huge crowd we are seeing here today despite antics of the APC government to cripple and sabotage the rally with artificial fuel scarcity and stoppage of drivers from Ekiti roads; let me assure you that we will make you happy for making us happy today.

 “When I came here today what I saw almost brought tears to my eyes, when we came here some people said we are not going to see anybody in Ekiti, and we realized what they meant was to cripple public transportation in Ado- Ekiti and the whole of Ekiti state.

 “Again they did not stop there, they also caused an artificial scarcity of Petroleum products so that even if you have your motorcycle or your car, you will not be able to move.

“So that they can stop people from coming here, but you braved all their challenges. When I came into this arena, I almost shed tears of joy.

“What I can assure you is that if you vote PDP into power, the way you have made us happy today, we will also make you happy in Ekiti state.

“We will go out of our way to provide you with everything that you want us to provide, some people were talking about the road from here to Akure, we will do it and all the roads that connect Ekiti state with other states, we shall construct them.

“Today has been a wonderful day, happy day and I want to assure you that we will be with you throughout the campaign period and we will make sure that on the election day whatever you may need to make sure that you go to vote, protect your vote is made available to you.“

Atiku further said his pledge to set aside US$10 billion for women and youth empowerment when elected President in next month’s election.

He promised to tap into the rich intellectual endowment of the state population to run his administration if elected.

According to him, Ekiti state enjoys a pride of place as the Centre of intellectualism in Nigeria with a population of more educated persons than anywhere else in the country.

Atiku said, “Ekiti State is the centre of intellectual discussion, you have more educated people in this state than any other state in the country.

“I can assure you that a PDP federal government will make use of the human capital that God has endowed you with in Ekiti, it is your God-given gift and we shall utilize that human resources that God has given you.

“Besides we want to make sure that particularly our young men and women have businesses to do, have sources of income.

“That is why I pledge to set aside Ten Billion US dollars so that those young men and women who want to get involved in enterprises will be given loans and capital so that they can achieve their lifetime ambition.

PDP Vice Presidential candidate and Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, said, “With what we have seen here today, we are sure that the people of Ekiti State will vote for Atiku” as he urged the electorate in the state to “use your PVC to send APC out of Nigeria.”

“It is time to bring back a government that cares for the people. The high level of insecurity is not for Nigeria we are talking about, the disunity in the country today, is not the Nigeria of our dream.

“The way they have destroyed the education of this country, that was not what we hoped for and now our people are hungry, they can’t have employment. Everything is going bad, industries are packing, and everything is getting expensive, that is not the Nigeria of our dream.

“We want as a party to begin the process to recreate a new Nigeria, where everybody will be happy, where people will get employed, where our youths can have hope for their future and when they are leaving school, they know that there is something in stock for them to do. This is what Atiku Abubakar has promised us.“

Earlier, PDP National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, handed over flags to those National Assembly attended the Mega rally; the Ekiti South Senatorial candidate, Biodun Olujimi; and the House of Representative’s candidate for (Ekiti South 1), Henrich Akomolafe.

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