By Victor Akinkuolie Ado-Ekiti

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for the June 18 election in Ekiti State, Biodun Oyebanji, has advised his Social Democratic Party (SDP) counterpart, Segun Oni, to withdraw if he was not ready for real contest in the coming poll.

He alleged that Oni was posing as if he was expecting himself to be imposed on Ekiti, rather than real contest going by phantom accusations he had allegedly been raising against the ruling party to gain relevance.

Oyebanji said this in Ado Ekiti, at the weekend, while reacting to allegation raised by the SDP that its deputy governorship candidate, Ladi Owolabi, was allegedly attacked by suspected APC thugs  during the week.

Debunking the claim, Oyebanji, who spoke through the Director of Media and Publicity of his campaign outfit, Taiwo Olatunbosun, told the former governor not to expect to become Ekiti governor on the platter of gold or via undemocratic means.

Oyebanji said the people of Ekiti will elect who governs them through a keen and democratic process and not by imposition, thuggery and raising of unfounded accusations for cheap political capital.

“I want to say with all sincerity and open heart that the APC was not aware of any attack on the SDP deputy governorship candidate.

“And if truly it happened, I want to dissociate our members from it, because we are busy campaigning all over Ekiti. We are the ruling party and we have a lot of good projects we have done to campaign to Ekiti people, so we have no reason to attack anyone”, he said.

The APC candidate added further; ” With the ways they have been threatening the people and raising false allegations, I don’t think Segun Oni is prepared for a real contest.

“All he wanted is getting the governorship through blackmail and on a platter of gold, which we believed was undemocratic. If he finds himself unprepared for the contest, he can withdraw honourably from the race.”

Oyebanji posited that the party had made campaign of issues its mantra and won’t deviate or waver from such in the interest of Ekiti people.

The former Secretary to the State Government, pledged to keep to all the promises made to Ekiti as encapsulated in his manifesto.

“Oyebanji had unveiled his manifesto, which is his social contract with Ekiti people and it covered human capital development, infrastructure, healthcare delivery, commercial agriculture, good governance, among others.

“So, we are running a race that is well defined . Let other party candidates, including Oni learn from us, unveil his manifesto if they have any and let the people know what they have in stock for them, rather than stoking violence, attacks and unrest.”