2019: Fayose says Nigerians want younger Presidents, slams EFCC as Buhari’s attack dog over arrest of Finance Commissioner, AG; Arrest connected to Bailout Funds.

Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose on Thursday, publicly declared his presidential ambition in Abuja disclosing he is ready to contest the 2019 presidential election on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

He told his supporters that the People’s Democratic Party, PDP will take-over power from the Buhari-led government come 2019 saying that Nigerians are tired of ‘packaged president’.

He said, “The problem with us in Nigeria is because we have not invested in a president that cares about the people though he posited that the Vice President of the incumbent government is trying to cover up for his superior insisting that the people deserve more than that.

“We are tired of ‘Baba so-pe’ kind of politics, I am not ‘Baba’ I am still young I have the interest of my people at heart. PDP needs a candidate like me who have penchant for defeating incumbents”.

“Buhari almost gave up on his ambition of being the President of Nigeria, but whether we like it or not, he is now the president.

“Jonathan was a quiet deputy governor and never thought to be President, but God put him there.

“Yar’Adua was sitting at home, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo told me to go and tell him he will be Nigeria’s President. The man said no when I spoke with him in his residence, but God said ‘yes’. So he became president”.

Fayose stated that people in the PDP fold who are criticizing his declaration should rather come out and challenge him.

On the arrest of the Commissioner for Finance, Chief Toyin Ojo, and the Accountant General, Mrs Yemisi Owolabi, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC as an irresponsible action in Ekiti State, Fayose slammed the commission as behaving like an attack dog of the present government.

A statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said it was obvious that the hawks around President Muhammadu Buhari were afraid of the Fayose’s declaration for the 2019 presidential election.

“The EFCC is obviously living up to its status as the attack-dog of the All Progressives Congress government, but Ekiti State government under Governor Ayodele Fayose cannot be intimidated.”

The statement said the arrest was carried out with the view to embark on another round of media trial against the governor and his government.

“It is funny that the EFCC, in the bid to carry out its usual hatchet job against Governor Fayose, failed to take into cognizance the subsisting court order, which forbids any official of the Ekiti State government from being arrested by the EFCC.

“Up till today, the court order has not been appealed and it subsists.”

The governor challenged the EFCC to tell Nigerians what has been done to loads of petitions written against the immediate past All Progressives Congress government of Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

“What has the EFCC done to those involved in the grass-cutting scam and the $43m Ikoyi scam?”

“It is so funny and laughable that these characters in the APC government can’t even disappoint for once by being unpredictable.”

Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) confirmed the arrest of two key officials of the Ekiti State Government saying it is over the alleged misuse of bailout funds.

In a statement in Abuja, spokesman of the commission, Wilson Uwujaren, identified the officials as the Commissioner for Finance and the Accountant General of the state.

Uwujaren said they were picked up by EFCC operatives “following their refusal to honour previous invitations for interrogation in relation to pending investigation on the misuse of bailout funds by the Gov. Ayodele Fayose administration”.

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