Buhari’s utterances emboldened anti-Igbo campaigners - Fayose

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of making utterances that emboldened a section of the country to make hate speeches against the Igbo.



Fayose said Buhari got it wrong by his statement after inauguration that his government might not favour any section of the country that voted against him during the 2015 presidential poll.

“Apparently, the Igbo didn’t vote for Buhari in 2015,” the governor said in Ado Ekiti during a meeting with members of the Conference of Ekiti State Private Sectors and non-indigenes.

Fayose said the meeting with the groups was meant to cement his relationship with them in preparation for the 2018 electoral battle.

Blaming the President for the recent quit notice recently issued to Igbo by a coalition of northern youth groups, Fayose said, “How can a President that was just sworn in after a tension-soaked election be saying that any section that didn’t vote for him won’t benefit from his appointments?

“By implication, such President was openly giving room for sectionalism and that was exactly what President Buhari did after the election. We could all confirm that Nigeria has never been this divided in history.

“Every Nigerian knew that the people of the South-East didn’t vote for him, so that automatically make northern groups to have the effrontery to order the Igbo out of their region. When a leader speaks like that, something like this is bound to happen.

“We can’t deny the fact that the problem has gone so deep in dividing us. But it is not beyond solution. The leaders from the South-East and the North should sit down and iron out their differences in the interest of everybody,” he said.

Fayose commended acting President Yemi Osinbajo for meeting with opinion moulders from the two feuding regions, saying this would help in stemming the tide of agitation holding the country by the jugular.

Fayose reiterated that the PDP governors had resolved to remain in the party and shield it from being destroyed by external aggressors, whether the Supreme Court favoured Senator Ali Modu Sheriff’s faction or not.

Speaking on the 2018 poll, Fayose said he was looking forward to an election where he would repeat history by giving the APC 16-0.

“We want to prove our supremacy over them because they said they lost the last election due to militarisation.

“But today, the APC controls the INEC, the military, police and other para-military organisations and when we defeat them, we will await what they will say again because we have the people behind us,” Fayose said.