Key highlights
- Fayose said those planning to unseat president-elect, Bola Tinubu, are putting themselves through a nightmare.
- He said he has no regrets supporting Bola Tinubu during the presidential election.
- The former Ekiti State Governor said he is not desperate for any appointment and will never join the APC.
A former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has said that those planning to overturn the mandate of the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and unseat him are just daydreaming.
This was made known by Fayose who recently quit his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while appearing as a guest on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, on Tuesday, where he insisted that the election has come and gone and those that are aggrieved are at liberty to go to court.
Fayose said the 2023 presidential election is over and a winner has emerged, adding that whoever did not win on the field should know that the winner will not sit back and watch their victory disrupted through the courts.
Fayose’s statement
The former Ekiti State Governor said,
- “For anybody to say you will unseat Ahmed Bola Tinubu, you are daydreaming, you are daydreaming, it’s a nightmare you are putting yourself through; that election has come and gone.
- “When you win somebody in Nigerian politics, let me tell you, it is better to win on the field, this one you are talking about is an afterthought, after launch.
- “When you are shouting court, the other people will be looking at you to go and take over the court ahead of them?” Fayose asked rhetorically.
- “In America, the former president is still saying he was rigged. He who comes to equity must have clean hands. Today, in Nigeria, that election has come and gone but you are at liberty to go to court.”
Has no regrets supporting Tinubu
Fayose explained that in the build-up to polls, members of Integrity Group — comprising five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors and other party chieftains were asked to support a southern presidential candidate in their different states.
He maintained that he has no regrets and will he apologize for supporting Tinubu.
Fayose said there was a directive for those in the Integrity Group to support a southern candidate and while those from the South East and South-South chose to support Peter Obi of the Labour Party, he chose to side with Asiwaju who is from his region the South West.
Fayose said he is not desperate for any appointment, adding that he is somebody who will not “cringe because of a piece of meal” and will never move to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
- He added, “Many people in Nigeria have been confronted with what they have said at different times and they either recant or say something new. I stand here to tell you that I will never be a member of the APC.
- “I am not in politics for what it is anymore. I have been given a fair opportunity to lead Ekiti two times and defeated two incumbents.
- “Nigeria is not a country we now take for granted. You will see that by the outcome of this election that a lot of people were displaced as a result of taking people for granted.”
For catch up
- Recall that on March 1, 2023, INEC declared the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
- The Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, in his pronouncement said that the former Lagos state governor polled a total vote of 8,794,726 to defeat his closest rival and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who scored 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of Labour party who polled 6,101,533 votes.
- The presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso came a distant fourth with a total vote of 1,496,687 votes.
- However, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, in separate press conferences rejected the results of the election and the collation process, saying that they won the election. They have both headed to the court to seek legal redress.
- 4 presidential candidates on Tuesday formally filed a suit at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja with separate petitions, seeking the nullification of the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the February 25 presidential poll.
- The petitioners, seeking nullification of Tinubu’s emergence as President-elect are Atiku Abubakar of the PDP; Peter Obi of the Labour Party; Solomon Okangbuan of Action Alliance and Allied People’s Movement’s Chichi Ojei.