KAYODE FAYEMI CAMPAIGN ORGANISATION COMMENDS POLICE FOR NABBING LP 'MERCENARY VOTERS'

The Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation says the arrest at the weekend by the Ekiti State Police Command of 18 "mercenary voters" on their way from Idanre in Ondo State to register as voters in Ekiti State has further confirmed its claim that the Labour Party in concert with the Mimiko-led Ondo State Government were bringing ineligible people from Ondo State to register as voters in Ekiti.

The campaign organisation said Idanre is the hometown of Governor Olusegun Mimiko's Chief of Staff, Mr. Kola Ademujimi, who represented his boss at Opeyemi Bamidele's official declaration in Ado-Ekiti where he boasted that the Mimiko administration was more experienced than the Fayemi administration.

In a statement by its spokesperson, Mr. Dimeji Daniels, the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation said "it is now clear that electoral malpractice is what Mimiko's Chief of Staff adduced to as experience."

While commending the Police for nabbing the "mercenary voters", the organisation said all security agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must rise up to ensure that the desperate tactics of Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele and his ilk are curtailed before he sets Ekiti on fire.

"This unscrupulous and unholy alliance between Mr. Bamidele and the Labour Party to ensure that Ekiti votes do not count must be nipped in the bud and condemned by all well-meaning Nigerians. We are seriously concerned at this more desperate turn that the governorship ambition of Mr. Bamidele has taken. Fond of couching lies in flowery statements, Mr. Bamidele was full of promises to the US Consular-General about ensuring free and fair poll in Ekiti, all this while he was working against same by planning to 'import' fictitious voters from his godfather' state to Ekiti State. One wonders how he manages to keep a straight face while planning evil. When ambition turns to desperation, men of goodwill must rise up to prevent a peaceful society from becoming chaotic. As an indigene of Ekiti State, Bamidele benefitted largely from the political stability in Lagos State. We must ask him why he is very much eager to send Ekiti back to the days of political instability by violating the Electoral Act," the statement read.

The Campaign Organisation said it was most unpatriotic of Bamidele to team up with non-Ekitis to scuttle the peace in the state.

Meanwhile, the Director-General of the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation, Mr. Bimbo Daramola, has condemned the tragic death of some young Nigerians who were among the millions who trooped out on Saturday to write the application test of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

Mr. Daramola said the NIS should have conducted a pre-selection test instead of subjecting millions of youth to untold hardships and needless deaths.

He added that to prevent such from reoccuring, the Federal Government must take urgent steps to stem the problem of unemployment.

Citing the Ekiti example where the Fayemi-led administration has drastically reduced the scourge through various stop-gaps such as the Ekiti Volunteer Corps under which unemployed youth in the state are given N10, 000 monthly and are also trained to become self-employed, the Peace Corps, Ekiti State Traffic Management Agency (EKSTMA) and Youth in Conmercial Agriculture Development (YCAD) programme which has since become a money-spinner for the participants, Daramola said it would require thinking outside the box as the Ekiti experience has shown to reduce the biting unemployment rate in the country.