By Rotimi Ojomoyela

Ado – A Chieftain of the All Progressive Congress in Ekiti State, Mr Olusegun Osinkolu has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore the vituperations of Governor Ayodele Fayose over the appointment of Prof Mahmoud Yakubu as the new Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission.

Osinkolu, in a statement in Ado Ekiti Monday said, Fayose lacks the moral justification to condemn President Buhari of being sectional, in view of alleged lopsided appointments that had happened in the State under his watch.

He said the litany of attacks being launched against President Buhari was a ploy being deployed by Fayose to hijack the Peoples Democratic Party at the centre for him to actualise his Vice Presidential ambition in 2019.

Fayose had last week condemned President Buhari of being sectional for appointing a Northerner from Bauchi State to succeed Prof Attahiru Jega from Kebbi State, describing this as the highest point of lopsidedness and marginalization of the southern region.

Osinkolu said President Buhari is empowered by the constitutional to appoint whoever he thinks could build on the legacies of the immediate past Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, adding that Fayose’s vituperations should not in any way deter the presidency to do what is right and just.

“The same man that is crying hoax, describing Buhari as a sectional leader had committed more grievous sectionalism in Ekiti as he called it.

“His Chief of Staff, Chief Dipo Anisulowo hails from the neighbouring Atre town among over 20 other juicy positions allotted to indigenes of his Afao Ekiti countryhome, which is half a ward. What could have been more lopsided than this?

“It smacks of ignorance for a governor to be ranting over non-issues when his colleagues are thinking of how to embrace the change in the system and bring dividends of democracy to the people.

“The governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ben Ayade had last week flagged off 260kms super highway in his State. President Buhari was there despite that that State is being controlled by the opposition.

“I expect governor Fayose, a governor superintending over the most educated State in Nigeria to exercise decorum and emulate the maturity of this highly cerebral governor from Cross River State and think of how to partner the FG to bring Ekiti out of the woods rather than engaging in demeaning propaganda.

“If Fayose wants to prove to be opposition’s voice, the salient questions would be that had President Buhari breached the constitution in the appointment of the new INEC boss? Does the appointee not qualify to hold the position?

“If President Buhari had not erred in any of the two circumstances, then it will be wrong for Governor Fayose to start criticizing and playing sectional politics all for his voice to be heard”, he said.

Osinkolu assured the people of the State that the APC shall bounce back to reckoning and dislodge the PDP in the 2018 governorship poll.