Governor Ayodele Peter Fayose of Ekiti State narrated his ordeal in the hands of former Governor Kayode Fayemi now Minister of Solid Mineral Resources: “If Fayemi had done well and had been fair to people like me, at the age of 55, there won’t be a reason for me to say I want to be a governor again. Naturally, this governorship is for young people because you need a lot of energy to run around. The failure of one is the promotion of the other. Because if Fayemi had treated me well as agreed (I would not have contested against him).”
“They denied that I had an agreement with them to go to the Senate. When I contested for the Senate, they manipulated the election. They said I collected money from Asiwaju, that they had paid me off. I kept quiet and persevered. I kept praying. There was a time I went to Fayemi’s office; I was walked out – an office that I built.”
Well, that is history now because even if I had issues with him, God has rewarded me. He is a diligent rewarder of those that put faith in him. I’m satisfied. I have no issues again with him. He is one-time governor of this state and I will be an ex-governor at some point. I appreciate God for giving me a second chance to be able to put in my best and have my name written in history positively.”
“Even if I had any regret, God has granted me victory over any regret. I did everything humanly possible to support Fayemi to get to that position. Throughout his tenure, it was as if I was going through a civil war. But that is no longer important. If a man took advantage of you and God restored your pride to you, what else do you want? The people that conspired against me to remove me from office in 2006 and those plotting (against me) now, I don’t want them to die – including our lawyer-friend that sits in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission coordinating evil against me.”
“They will wait in vain. I want to refer them to Psalm 23: ‘Though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for thou are with me. Thou set a table before me in the presence of my enemies.’ God will still set another table before me after this one. They will wait in vain. I have not lost any battle. I will always escape their evil plans. They wanted me to be in jail so that I won’t be here; I escaped. They wanted me to go to prison for murder; I escaped. I’m here today not by their grace. The more they call people to come and falsify statements against me, the more I become favoured.”
– Culled from The PUNCH