Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has sworn-in the 16 local government chairmen that were elected in Saturday’s council polls in the state.
Performing their inauguration on Sunday, Governor Fayose charged them not to distance themselves from their people.
At the event, Fayose also announced the appointment of 13 immediate past local government chairmen that were not returned for another term, as special advisers to the governor in their respective local government areas.
Fayose said: “Remember that the way up is the way down. If you don’t have the money make yourself available to the people. The people are not asking for much but a shoulder to lean on. We are a small state and if we stay together we will make a great difference.
” This is not a period to stay aloof from the people you are leading. The people are facing a lot of challenges and we must make every effort to ameliorate their suffering. I pray that we will move into a new year of abundance, victory and accomplishment.”
However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, which didn’t participate in the election it said was a sham, commended Ekiti people it said “boycotted the election.”
The party said it “praised the people, including workers, pensioners, artisans, market women and the youth for refusing to participate in the compromised local government election organised by Governor Ayodele Fayose’s faction of PDP in cahoots with the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC).”
In a statement in Ado-Ekiti by its Publicity Secretary, Chief Taiwo Olatunbosun, the party said “the refusal of Ekiti people to participate in the election was a pointer to a total rejection of Fayose and his party and a confirmation of our assertion that Ekiti people are only waiting for 2018 governorship election to send Fayose and his PDP into the dustbin of Ekiti political history.”
