The Coordinator, Ekiti-Oke Progressive Allies, Mr Tunde Babalola, on Sunday, cautioned the All Progressives Congress in the state against gambling with the Senatorial candidate for Ekiti North District for the 2023 election.
Babalola, who advised the party on the need to choose popular candidates like former National Assembly member, Senator Ayo Arise, who could win an election, warned that the party stood the chance of losing the Ekiti North Senatorial race in 2023 if a sellable candidate was not fielded.
The EPA coordinator, who spoke at Oye Ekiti, headquarters of Oye Local Government, on Sunday, while addressing journalists on the 2023 senatorial race, advised the APC not to take for granted the election which he said would be a fierce battle between the governing APC and opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
Babalola said, “We have ruminated deeply on how our party, APC, can overcome the coming onslaught occasioned by the disappointing representation we are getting at present and the level of despondency it has brought to our people and realised that the party can get the best recovery by fielding Senator Arise”.
Babalola, who said that Arise, with wide networks and strong personality, would as well be a veritable and staunch ranking Senator who could contest for principal positions in the Senate and be in better stead to attract development and democracy dividends to the district as he did while in the National Assembly with establishment of Federal University, Oye Ekiti in the district.
He said, “It would only be fair, just and apposite for the leadership of APC to microzone the ticket to Oye Local Government and unanimously adopt Senator Arise to fly the party’s flag and do Ekiti proud the way he did in the past.
“Except the APC is deluding itself, the party’s popularity is now at the lowest ebb in Ekiti North. The people are already disillusioned with the lacklustre representation they are getting from the current occupant of the seat and the best way to escape the dungeon of defeat is to field a popular candidate like Senator Arise.
“Within four years in the Senate, he (Arise) succeeded through deft political moves and networks in etching his name in gold by working hard for the establishment of FUOYE with campuses in Oye Ekiti and Ikole Ekiti in Ekiti North Senatorial District.
“This was besides the series of empowerment programmes he initiated that benefited the widows, youth groups, elderly people and other vulnerable to give them solace and buffer to survive economic crunch and hardship.
“Today, FUOYE has become a pride of Ekiti and one of the best employers of labour that has succeeded in radicalising the local economy of Oye and Ikole Ekiti. FUOYE’s influences are also resonating relief in other adjoining communities like Itapa and Ayegbaju Ekiti,” the group said.
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