Is Fayose under fire over death wish for candidate?

Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose came under fire yesterday as eminent Nigerians criticised his continous death wish for All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Senator Ayo Arise, Ekiti State APC and others had harsh words for the governor. But despite the criticism of his hate message, Fayose yesterday in Abuja inissted that Gen. Buhari is receiving treatment in a London hospital. Amosun wondered how some people in the name of politics could descend to a ridiculously low level of wishing Gen. Buhari dead. Amosun, who travelled to London with Buhari and returned on Sunday, wondered how a “sane person” could wish his fellow human being ill or dead , adding that it is even a “disgrace to the Yoruba race” for a Yoruba to indulge in such. The governor, who spoke with reporters shortly after a meeting with representatives of over 57 Community Development Associations(CDAs) and Cooperative Societies at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta, said “Buhari is alive, hale and hearty”. The APC presidential candidate is agile and healthier than the “character” behind the spate of ill-will and death wishes against him, he said. The governor urged genuine lovers of democracy and humanity to call those wishing the former Head of State dead to order, stressing that the strange practice did not only go against tradition but does not have basis in Christianity and Islam. Amosun said: “Let me say this is a big shame. We are Yoruba. It is an unwritten rule they would say that even if in different pàrties they are not fighting, they want to represent our people. How can a sane person wish somebody else dead? Why? It has never happened, it is a disgrace. “For your information, Buhari is even stronger than the character saying the man is ill, maybe because of his military background. “The man is hale and hearty for his age. It is like Baba Obasanjo; this is a man that is very agile and you just have to tell him slow down to catch up with, just like some people will tell me to slow down. “We went to about five places. Even when I went to Ben Television, I told him, ‘sir, you can’t follow me; you have to go home;’ he was ready to follow me even in the cold. “The man was working round and you saw the photoshop they are using; they sre saying a lot of rubbish. That is not politics; it has descended to an abysmal level. All lovers of democracy and humanity should call them to order. “Politics will end one day and where will such people be? I think they are descending to a level that is unheard of, that negates good living.” Senator Arise, a PDP chieftain, who spoke on a Channels Television breakfast programme monitored in Ado-Ekiti, said although Fayose is entitled to his opinion, he is not speaking for the party. To Arise, who represented Ekiti North in the Senate between 2007 and 2011, the hate campaign mounted by Fayose is needless as all what is needed is for PDP members to work for the victory of President Goodluck Jonathan at the March 28 presidential contest. He said: “Our party has come out strongly to say that Fayose is not speaking for the party. So, I won’t say he is not entitled to his opinion at this level. “But, left to me as an individual, I disagree with him on this. I believe we don’t need such in the PDP. All we need is to work hard and campaign for Mr. President to win the election fair and square.” In a statement on Monday signed by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, the Ekiti APC accused Fayose of diverting the attention of Nigerians from his alleged fraudulent victory as revealed in the audio tape leak. It said the revelations in the tape would not be eclipsed by his anti-Buhari campaign antics, stressing that the money the governor is spending in his hate campaign could have been channelled into productive activities for the benefit of Ekiti people. The statement said: “He knows with Gen. Buhari as the President, that will be the end of impunity and fraud through which he was declared the governor. “He knows he can’t survive the revelations contained in the tape when Buhari becomes the President. That is why he wants General Buhari dead. We know Fayose very well. He will go to any length in his hate campaign, wishing Buhari dead. But he will not succeed. “Theý spirits of Nigerians that desire change in their lives are stronger than Fayose’s selfish spirit whose only wish among millions of Ekiti is to build an empire around himself with stupendous wealth while Ekiti people beg him for crumbs from his table. “Governor Fayose is taking his hate campaign against General Buhari to the level of personal agenda far and above the collective agenda of Ekiti people for good governance and development of the state. “If Fayose had taken the issues of development seriously as he is doing in his hate campaign against Buhari, the effects could have been felt in many areas that are germane to the state development,”the APC added. It said: “Fayose is busy on two fronts. One, in Ekiti, he keeps telling the people and workers in particular about the debts profile and the difficulty that he will face in paying workers’ salary, starting from March while saying nothing about his development plans for the people. “Outside giving Ekiti people chicken and rice, he doesn’t have any development plan. “At the national level, he is busy with anti-Buhari campaign, wishing the APC presidential candidate dead and completely unable to divorce his personal interest of political survival from the collective interest of Ekiti people for a purpose-driven government that caters for the general good of the people. “We have no doubt in our minds that Fayose needs medical attention.” Oyo State chapter of the Buhari Campaign Vanguard said Fayose’s “antecedents and precedents constitute serious affront to human dignity”. Speaking in Oyo town, the State Deputy Co-ordinator for the Vanguard, Chief Segun Taiwo said: “How on earth could a right-thinking and normal human being who is not a human type be wishing his fellow being dead because of politics. “Is Fayose God? Can he tell us when he will die, where and how? Who is Fayose to determine future aspiration of his fellow being? It is even a taboo in Yoruba culture to wish anybody dead.” Fayose denied yesterday the reports that he had sent some people on Gen. Buhari’s trail. He spoke at a news conference in Abuja on the health of Gen Buhari, saying he is receiving treatment in a London hospital. He said: “At Buhari’s age, I don’t need to run after him. My prayer is that he live long. Buhari is old even to govern a state. He is frail, old and not strong to run the affairs of this country. “General Buhari is not well, he is sick in the hospital. This is not personal. I am not against the North. I am not against the South. Our leaders should show us their medical records. “I am saying that Nigeria needs a healthy leader who will be able to address the problems of this country. Even in advanced countries, those wishing to lead present their medical records because they know the amount of energy to be deployed.” Fayose also spoke on the interview Gen. Buhari granted a London television station, All Eyes on Africa, which he said was conducted in Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja room. Also, the governor admitted that he participated in the June 20, last year Ekiti governorship election rigging meeting, secretly recorded in an audio tape by Captain Sagir Koli. He said: “Yes, the voice in that audio tape is mine. If you listened very well, you would have heard me complaining about attempts by the APC to rig the election,” Fayose said. He had earlier denied ever been at such a meeting.