Youth Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, disowned Ekiti APC Youths Congress (EAYC)

The Youth Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Femi Ogundare, has disowned Ekiti APC Youths Congress (EAYC) that criticised APC lawmakers for not attending a peace meeting called by Chief Afe Babalola, saying the group does not exist within the party structure.

He described the group as a creation of Governor Ayodele Fayose’s media aide, Lere Olayinka, who he alleged had been using the group as authentic APC group opposed to all actions taken so far by the party in the last few months.

Reacting to the group’s criticism of the embattled Speaker, Dr Adewale Omirin, and other lawmakers as enemies of the State and the party for refusing to attend a peace meeting called by Babalola, Ogundare said the party had earlier called the attention of decent Nigerians to the fraud the governor had been selling to the public to create an impression of divisions with APC ranks.

“We had earlier alerted Nigerians to this fraud by Lere Olayinka in the media, particularly the social media. He is as dangerous as his boss, all of whom can’t survive where the law works.

“There is nobody by the name Tope Ogunkuade and Comrade Tunji Adeleye in our party. These are anonymous persons that Lere has been using as the Convener and Secretary of the phantom Ekiti APC Youth Congress. We have a data of all our about 250,000 members and we can’t find these names on the list. We also have the data of all caucuses and groups in our party and we can’t find this group,” he explained.

Ogundare explained that he had earlier called the attention of the public to this fraud aimed at misleading Nigerians and paint our party black as a disunited political party, saying attempts to paint the party as a disunited house had failed.

He said the group had during the presidential campaign disparaged former Governor Kayode Fayemi for allegedly abandoning Ekiti State APC in favour of leading the Muhammmadu Buhari Campaign across the country.

“The purported youth group had in their press release that time counselled Fayemi to stay at home as Fayose was doing in PDP to create an impression that it was speaking for our party.

”We have discipline and structure in our party that does not allow anybody or group to issue public statements on behalf of the party. We are relieved in the belief that the public, especially Ekiti people, are conversant with Fayose’s penchant for blackmail. There is no prominent Ekiti person that Fayose has not tainted with his brush of blackmail. If Fayose could paste Are Afe Babalola’s posters to portray him as a gubernatorial aspirant in 2005 contesting election with him just to blackmail the man, then there is no limit to what he can do to embarrass his victims.

“This is somebody who once arranged for his own official vehicle to be shot so that he could justify buying a bullet-proof vehicle. He blackmailed other prominent Ekiti citizens, such as Mr. Femi Falana and Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo, among others,” Ogundare explained.

He added that the APC youths supported APC lawmakers in all they are doing, particularly their handling of Fayose’s impeachment process, stressing that they believed in Dr Omirin’s leadership of the Assembly, which accounted for the laurels the Ekiti House of Assembly had won as the most productive Assembly in the country.

“We support our lawmakers for all the actions they have taken so far to rein in the reckless abuse of the Constitution by those ‎who have no respect for constitutional democracy. All efforts to distract them in their patriotic actions by irresponsible acts of lawless people in government will fail.

“Since the emergency peacemakers didn’t talk when Mr. Fayose used 7 PDP members to impeach the Speaker with the majority of 19, and proceeded to repeal and pass bills with 7 members, they should as well advice the Governor to answer for his constitutional breaches”

“The lawless governor should be ready for the consequences of his illegal acts which the emergency peace-makers failed to criticise until they knew their man was about paying for the consequences of his constitutional abuses. There is no shenanigans that can stop this patriotic intervention by Ekiti State House of Assembly ably led by Dr Omirin,” Ogundare concluded.