APC leaders protest marginalization, write Gov. Fayemi

Some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ado-Ekiti Constituency 1, Ekiti state, have protested against “unfair treatment” in the sharing of political offices in the state.

They made this known in a protest letter to the State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, on Sunday.

The letter titled, “Inequality, unfairness, and marginalization in the political office sharing to Ado Constituency 1” was signed by seven wards chairmen, women leaders, youth leaders, secretaries, and councilors in the constituency.

According to them, Ado-Ekiti Constituency 1 with the largest voting strength in the metropolis, has only 28 political appointees, while Ado-Ekiti Constituency 2, has more than 31 appointments in the present dispensation.

The aggrieved APC members alleged that they have been shortchanged by an “unfair and unacceptable sharing formula”.

The leaders said that though they had let go of the anomaly in the interest of the party, they needed to present their grievances to the governor to ensure fairness, justice, and equity in the next dispensation.

They said: “Ado-Ekiti Constituency 1 is embittered at the way and manner our collective interest has been shortchanged in the sharing of political positions.

“It is our belief and this has been our stand all the while that APC success is our success, but in a situation where political appointments were lopsidedly shared and uneven allocated between constituencies within the metropolis is no longer acceptable to us and it is becoming counter-productive”.

They warned that concentration of political appointments in one geographical area of an environment gives room for a drift loyalty, particularly when it gets to the point of “the power that be” not being sensitive enough to correct the anomalies.

They reminded the leadership of APC in the state that the opposition party, particularly the Social Democratic Party (SDP), had picked its deputy governorship candidate from the Ado-Ekiti Constituency 1.

The aggrieved APC members said that if something urgent was not done to salvage the situation, the opposition party may take advantage of the voting strength of the geographical area.

“The only thing that we all believe is for the leadership of APC to considerably focus attention to Ado-Ekiti Constituency 1 through zoning of elective positions to the constituency.

“If all these our agitations are not attended to and ensure that they are corrected on time, it is no threat that we may lose the constituency to the opposition that has picked its running mate from our constituency,” they said.

The aggrieved members also copied the State Deputy Governor, Chief Bisi Egbeyemi; and a former Deputy Governor in the State, Mrs. Modupe Adelabu; as well as Chairmen of the party in the state and Ado-Ekiti Local Government.