Hold Jonathan And PDP Responsible For Increased Political Violence In Ekiti – EKSG

Ekiti State Government has  said that President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of  Peoples  Democratic Party(PDP) should be held responsible for the present  heightened tension in the state  and increased rate of political violence witnessed in the last few  weeks

The State Commissioner  for Information and Civic  Orientation, Mr Tayo Ekundayo  in a statement made available to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti,
said  that Ekiti state which had  witnessed relative peace in the last 3 1/2  years was gradually sliding into chaos and anarchy as a result of
the sudden  incursion of the PDP  and its controversial candidate into the politics of the state

Ekundayo said the present spate of  violence being witnessed in the state was premeditated by the  PDP high command as Vice President
Namadi Sambo was reported  a couple of months  ago in the media  to have described the forthcoming  Ekiti Gubernatorial polls as  a  war that must be won at all costs

He noted that  it was therefore not  a coincidence that  the political violence precipitated  by the PDP on Sunday June 8th in which  lives were lost and properties destroyed  during which the  OC Mopol and the Commissioner of Police  launched a brazen assault on Governor Kayode Fayemi  took place while  Vice President Namadi Sambo  was in town.

Ekundayo explained that if the renewed wave of violence precipitated by the PDP and their cronies in the Labour Party  in the last couple of days in the state  is meant to deter  the people from  freely making their choice of Governor  in the June 21st poll, the PDP high command has failed as these incidents have  further emboldened the people  to reaffirm their  determination  on elacting their own governor without dictation from elsewhere .

The Commissioner  also condemned in strong terms a statement credited to President Goodluck  Jonathan  while campaigning for the PDP candidate last weekend  that the development of Ekiti will be hinged on the outcome  of the June 21st Elections . ”  Is Ekiti no longer a part of the Federation if it is not in the PDP”, he wondered.

He noted that it was regrettable that the President could make such a statement in Ekiti, a state where he recorded the mandatory 25% of the votes cast in the 2011 presidential elections.

Ekundayo posited that the resident’s statement confirms the obvious that the Jonathan administration has been pursuing an agenda of deliberately under developing the state through poor funding of the federal projects in the state and outright abandonment of its responsibilities as contained in the exclusive list of the Nigerian constitution.

The Commissioner also accused the PDP led Federal Government of deliberately holding on to over N10billion expended on Federal Government projects in the state by the Fayemi-administration as part of the grand design by the power-that-be in Abuja to financially incapacitate the state.

While condemning the open partisanship displayed by officers and men of the state command of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) in the run up to the June 21, 2014 election, Ekundayo called for the immediate redeployment of the Commissioner of Police and the OC Mopol as the duo have obviously been compromised.

Last modified: June 9, 2014