APC must take over nigerian govt In 2015 –Ayola

Hon Abayomi Ayeola, a chieftain of the All progressives congress (APC)represents Ibeju/Lekki fed­eral constituency in the House of Repre­sentatives.in this interview with REMI ADEFULU the lawmaker expressed bitterness with the outcome of the Ekiti governorsip elec­tion, which held on June 21, 2014.

How ready is APC for the 2015 polls?

By the special grace of God, let me de­clare very loud and clear that by February 2015, APC is taking over the government of this country, and that we are going to do so by popular election. We are not going to rig neither are we going to do anything questionable. That I promise you. Going by what people are saying about us, going by our own assessment, irrespective of what PDP or Jonathan is doing, we are taking over power.

How do you juxtapose your asser­tion against the backdrop of APC’S loss in Ekiti?
Nothing happened at Ekiti. We were sci­entifically rigged out of government in that election. It was via advance technology, but the case is in court, so I don’t want to say more.

Won’t the gale of impeachment affecting APC governors affect your party negatively?

You are talking about financially induced impeachment, but my message is that it affects all of us, particularly the political class should be mindful of what we are do­ing. You can’t be destroying the institution through which you went up, the institution that all of us have worked to uphold and to jealously guard. PDP has never won any election in this country except by rigging, resulting to violence. I only pray that we don’t play into the hands of the military. Somebody was said to have committed an offence in 2010, because he was in PDP then, it didn’t matter to them. It was noth­ing, they can’t overlook it, but because the man changed his party, now it became an offence. You will see what people will say about it and the aftermath.

Already, the nassarawa case is on and Imo may soon be af­fected. Where lies APC’S future?Those of Nassarawa and Imo will never hold. We are alive to our responsibility. If they resort to escaping our faces, we shall not allow it to continue. We are going to put them under check using all legal means available to us. We are going to checkmate them appropriately.

How would you assess the Na­tional Assembly?

It’s been superb. I remember we resolved that our common interest is Nigeria as a country. Our common interest is the pro­tection of the constitution of Nigeria. It is however sad that some PDP members are promoting what is obviously a PDP agenda, whether it is good for Nigeria or not. To that extent I reserve my comment.

Gov. Oshiomhole is facing a tought task because of the State Assembly crisis. Will he survive?There is no tough time our governor is go­ing through in Edo state. I don’t know how we got to the level where parliamentarians who sought peoples votes do not have con­science again. It was alleged that the parlia­mentarians there have been induced by the Federal Government to the tune of N60m naira each. I don’t know when they became groundnut and pepper that would become like items that could be bought in the mar­ket, it’s surprising to me but we should fore close that because they can’t succeed.

Do you agree that these are 2015 schemings?

It is true, it is but let it be said to them that we refuse to be, shamed. Rather, we are going to shame them. We are sending them out of government by the special grace of God. We can’t be intimidated.

Do you suscribe to the use of the Military for elections?

In Ekiti State, the number of members of the Armed Forces used for the election outnumbered the numbers of voters, with all sort of intimidations arresting our party people few days to the election. That had a well – perfected script that they wanted to execute. What we are sating is that absolute power corrupt absolutely. A bill is before the house of Reps now that we will stop the use of military during elections. Primarily, the duty of the armed forces of Nigeria is to guard against aggression of the country whether internally or externally. They have nothing to do with elections. A situation where members of the armed forces out number the voters shows that they are up to something and surely they use something.

Your party has gone to court over the Ekiti election. Do you think that move is popular?

You see the interest of any good politi­cians should be the interest of the populace. What governor Fayemi did was along that line. Remember we have sworn to protect the interest of the people. It was done to de – militarize the military in Ekiti state, to prevent blood shed and to avoid wanton de­struction of properties. People were ready to fight, unprecedented, uprising was looming before the party leaders to prevail on Fay­emi. There is no law preventing from chal­lenging the outcome of that election, if he wishes to. It is APC that is challenging, that is challenging the outcome of the election because it was the party that contested that election; there is no room yet for indepen­dent candidates in Nigeria. We have every right to do so and we are doing so.

Where do you stand on INEC and 2015?

Honestly speaking, I don’t have any iota of confidence. It was alleged that the bal­lot paper they used in Ekiti was electroni­cally manipulated to favor a party against the other. Whose responsibility is printing of ballot paper? In it not INEC? The ballot pa­pers were programmed, and after that elec­tion, we have had series of facts to allude to that. Mr. Segun Oni, a former governor of that state said at a polling booth, he and his entire family voted at the end of votes count­ing only one vote was recorded for APC. Agreed that the ink with which they thumb printed did not last more than five minutes before fading away. Something was wrong with that ballot paper, and that same ballot paper was produced by INEC. I am there­fore appealing that the INEC boss should be removed immediately because he has dem­onstrated that he can’t be a good umpire.

Do you think you have done well for your constituents at the National Assembly?

Of course, yes. The Yoruba person says he who is good knows that he’s good, and he who is bad knows that he’s bad. When I was going to (Abuja), I told myself that I would give them good representation, to the best of my ability. I am proud to say that I’ve been able to do far more than all my predecessors combined were able to do. We have eleven wards here. I made sure each of them have motorized boreholes.

Some are solar powered, while others are generator powered. I brought blocks of three classrooms, each to various schools with this constituency. Within the next few months, an ultra modern health centre, the first of its kind in this constituency will be completed at Ayeteju. Within the last three years, I’ve empowered not less than 75 outboard en­gines for fishermen and on daily basis, I give out fishing nets because our main occupa­tion here is fishing. You were also a witness to the youth empowerment program that I did where 120 youth selected across board were exposed to one-year interview training in tailoring, barbing, vulcanizing hair dress­ing. After due certification from their train­ers, we empowered them with all necessary equipment needed to perform as profession­als. We have given cash empowerment sev­eral numbers of people. In the area of sports, annually we organize competition, for our youths. We equally sponsor several social events. In the area of religion, we do full sponsorship to Mecca and Jerusalem, just as we provide financial help to those sponsor­ing themselves. In all spheres of life, we’ve tired our best.