One of the All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirant for the 2022 Ekiti State governorship election, Otunba Ademola Popoola has said, he will not step down his aspiration to contest the party primaries for any aspirant including the alledged ‘anointed’ candidate of Governor Kayode Fayemi.
Otunba Popoola who is an aviation expert stated this, while chatting with journalists at the APC National Secretariat after he submitted his expression of interest form in Abuja.
Reacting to speculations that the immediate past secretary to the Ekiti State government, Abiodun Oyebanji is the anointed candidate of Governor Fayemi, the aviation expert said “Governor Kayode has not called me once to tell me Demola step down. Never!
“I am not going to stop anybody. So the story of annointed, he has refuted, so let us take it that way.
“I am not anybody annointed and I will not step down for anybody. Not for $200 billion” he added.
Popoola who explained that he started his campaign earlier than all other aspirants said he is not anointed by any human but God Almighty to contest.
He said, “I started exactly 11 and half months ago. No aspirant has ever done that. If am going to be annointed candidate of the Governor, I wouldn’t have started my campaign 11 and half months ago.
“I was almost six months in my campaign before I informed His Excellency Dr John Kayode and His Excellency Niyi Adebayo of my intention and they told me you are more than qualified to be the Governor of Ekiti State, go ahead and begin your work and since then I have never stopped.
“I am nobody’s annointed candidate but I am someone candidate; the ALMIGHTY GOD! He is the one that annointed me and so I will be next Governor of Ekiti State by the grace of God”.
Speaking further, Otunba Popoola expressed conviction that he is the candidate to beat in the primaries and urged that the APC by all means ensure a free, fair and credible party primary.
He assured that if elected as the next governor of Ekiti state, he will bring to fore the untapped potentials of the state.
Similarly, another aspirant, Arole Oba Oluwasola Afolabi, an engineer turned nurse said he is in the race to bring down the ‘economic glory’ of the state that has been abandoned.
Afolabi who is new in the game, said he saved $50,000 from his business in the United States to sponsor his political ambition.
He said, “I got $50,000 last year which is equivalent to more than N22.5million. Since I have the ambition to do something for my great people of Ekiti, I kept the money in the bank.
“My goal is to come back to Ekiti State to create jobs. To help our young ones. There are lots of youths who are riding Okada here and there. They don’t have any viable job to sustain their lives and that is part of the peculiar reason why I have decided to run to be the Governor of Ekiti State this year by the grace of God”.
He said if elected as the state governor, he will put more efforts in developing the grassroots.
