Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti

As part of the ways to ward off internal crisis in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) that is fast becoming a potent force in Ekiti State, leadership of the party have adopted former Deputy Governor, Mr. Bisi Omoyeni as the consensus candidate of the party for the July 14 governorship election.

They said those who defected to the party shouldn’t see the governorship ticket as a sole priority, urging them to make sacrificesfor Ekiti to be liberated from the pangs of poverty .

Omoyeni, was the deputy governor to Governor Ayodele Fayose in his first term, where he served only for three months before resigning to assume the position of Group Managing Director of Wema Bank Plc.

He was formerly in the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) before defecting to SDP, citing cases of alleged manipulation of delegates’ list by his former principal, Governor Fayose.

Speaking on behalf of the party leaders in Ado Ekiti on Friday, the pioneer chairman of the party in the state, Engr. Ayo Adekola, saidthey decided to pick him based on his antecedents and for the fact that he was from the south senatorial district.

Adekola, who was the SDP governorship candidate in 2014, added that it had always been the wish of the founding fathers of the party in the state that the south produced the governor even before now.

He said they decided to moot the idea of making Omoyeni the governor because he has the capacity to implement the policies and programmes of the party, adding that “this will also make the April 14 primary a rancour-free process”.

He added: “In 2014, Dr Kola Adeyina from Ikere Ekiti, where Omoyeni hails from was our candidate. But he fell sick and was taken overseas and he used my name as a stop gap. Few days to election, he called me and said I should be made the candidate.

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“I want to advise our party to return to that town this time around.
And after brainstorming with other leaders, the only person we know
can realize the vision of our party and rescue us from this situation
is Chief Bisi Omoyeni, because this is a welfarist party.

“We are backing his candidature . We are determined to reenact the
victory of 1993 in this election. We plead with defectors not to see
the ticket as a priority”, he pleaded.

Omoyeni, who applauded the party’s leaders for counting him worthy, said : “These are elders in the party who brought SDP to Ekiti, so they must be doing this from the position of strength. I am ready to be part of this revolution to liberate Ekiti.

“What is important for us is to win and whatever actions taken that
will make us win and remove sufferings from the land are welcome.

“We must work hard to generate employments for our youth and make our economy comes alive. Look at Dubai today, it wasn’t made by magic, leadership turned it around , so SDP is a honourable platform that can make Ekiti great.

“If you look at the history of this country, I was the first deputy
governor to resign his position. I was not impeached or forced to
resign, it was voluntary.

“All I want is to ensure that there is no crisis in SDP and we are
going to Ekiti government house not for personal aggrandizement, but to make Ekiti great”, he said.