The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has announced his resignation from President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet.
Dr Fayemi made the announcement on Wednesday at a valedictory briefing in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory in order to pursue his governorship ambition in Ekiti State.
He had given a hint about his resignation from the President’s cabinet earlier in May during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The former minister emerged as the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for Ekiti State in the party’s rescheduled primary election which held on May 12.
He faulted the allegation that he was desperate to become the governor of the state for a second time.
Instead, Fayemi said he was contesting the election because he was unable to complete his mission in his first tenure.
“I have a sense of unfinished business; not a sense of wanting to come back for desperate reasons. I served as governor of the state for four years – whatever I’m doing is based on the record that somebody could be subjected to critical scrutiny,” he had said.
Following his victory at the primary, President Buhari congratulated Fayemi and other aspirants who took part in the exercise.
The President was optimistic that having won the party’s ticket, the former governor would leverage his track record as a reformist who has a passion for education, health and welfare, to reclaim the governorship seat when the state goes to poll on July 14.
He, had, however, asked members of the APC in Ekiti to uphold the values and philosophy of the ruling party by coming together to support the former minister.
Meanwhile, the present state governor, Ayodele Fayose, has asked the former governor to “expect to suffer worse defeat compared to that of 2014”, when they both vie for the Ekiti governorship seat.
Fayose was happy that the APC picked a candidate whom he claimed the Ekiti people would gladly vote against.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has picked Alhaja Habibat Adubiaro as his running mate in the July 14 governorship election in the state.
It was gathered that Adubiaro, who is the president of the Federation of Muslim Women Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN),has served as a commissioner for Women Affairs.
The Ado-Ekiti born woman is also a senior lecturer at the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti.
The choice of Adubiaro as running mate to the APC’s governorship candidate came few weeks after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti picked the immediate past Chairman of Ado Local Government, Kazeem Deji Ogunsakin, as the running mate to its governorship candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola.
Ogunsakin, 39, was said to have been picked after the PDP’s extensive consultation with various stakeholders, including the youths and the Muslim community in the state.
