The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of desecrating the tomb of the late deputy governor of the state, Funmilayo Olayinka.
Olayinka served as deputy to former Governor Kayode Fayemi between October 16, 2010 and April 6, 2013, when she died of cancer.
In a statement by the APC Chairman for the Ado Ekiti Local Government Area, Mr. D.O. Adigun, the party expressed reservation that Fayose was “building a women centre within the confine of the park and almost right on the tomb.”
“To us, this is a disservice and deliberate, extreme partisanship to fight and dishonour Moremi even in death. There are lots of open and undesignated spaces across the state capital that could be used for the so-called women centre,” the party said.
But Fayose, who reacted through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said building a four-storey edifice (Women Development Centre) in front of the late deputy governor’s tomb could not amount to desecration.
“The more the APC spew out arrant nonsense as they have been doing, the more the party is hated by Ekiti people, who overwhelmingly made Fayose their governor,” he said.
Olayinka explained that the WDC being built in honour of the late former deputy governor would serve as a centre for addressing issues relating to women in the state.
“To Governor Fayose, dumping the late deputy governor’s corpse in an open space with no benefit to the people is not enough. Rather, while the tomb remains where it is, the government has deemed it necessary to put up an edifice in front of the tomb in her honour and for the benefit of women in the state.
“If the APC people in the state are seeing that as desecration of her tomb, too bad,” Olayinka added. Punch
