LG poll: I don’t short-change people like APC, says Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has said the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state ought to cover their faces in shame for not being able to conduct local government election in their four-year stay in power and needlessly criticising the conduct of the election by his administration.
The governor also said the APC-led administration greatly short-changed the people of the state by running the affairs of the councils with caretaker committees while they were in government.
The governor spoke in Ado-Ekiti yesterday through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi.‎
The governor noted that the claim by APC leaders that Saturday’s local government election was shunned by the people of the state was not only far from the truth, but a futile face-saving lie from the opposition party.
“If the APC boycotted the election, it is their own funeral. What surprises can they spring if they had not boycotted the poll? I defeated them totally in governorship, presidential, National Assembly and the State Assembly polls. They are afraid of another disgrace, that is why they opted to stay away.
“It is on record that the APC government never conducted local government election in this state. When we came on board in 2003 we inherited a caretaker committees and we subsequently conducted LG poll. During the administration of Segun Oni on the platform of the PDP, he conducted local election too.
“The Ayodele Fayose-led administration promised to conduct local government poll and did that within a year despite the various attempts made by the APC not to allow that to happen. Those saying the turnout was poor are only deluding themselves.
“There is no election where the turnout has ever been the same in every polling area. People come out according to the voting strength of such areas. The people voted overwhelmingly for the Peoples Democratic Party the way they have been doing in the last few years.
“Apart from the PDP, other parties that took part in the poll included the APA, UPP, Kowa Party etc. The fact remains that no matter what anybody says, in the face of the law, all registered political parties are the same.
“The law does not recognise any party based on the number of supporters, but based on legal and constitutional recognition. Imagine how huge the APC short-changed the people of the state when they ran the system with caretaker committees.
“We now have 16 elected council chairmen, 177 councillors, at least four supervisory councillors in each of the councils, advisers, personal assistants and man more. Compare that to the system when the APC only ran the councils with six-man committees,” he said.
The governor advised the opposition party to stop licking its wounds following consistent electoral defeat.