The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has said if elected, his administration will meet every demand of the residents in Ekiti state.
Abubakar spoke on Tuesday while addressing residents of Ekiti at the presidential rally of the party in Ado Ekiti, the state capital.
The former Vice-President said he nearly “shed tears of joy” when he saw the crowd at the rally.
“When I came here today, what I saw almost brought tears to my eyes. When we came here, some people said we are not going to see anybody in Ekiti. We realised what they meant was to cripple public transportation in Ado-Ekiti and the whole of Ekiti state,” he said.
“Again they did not stop there. They also caused an artificial scarcity of petroleum products so that even if you have your motorcycle or car, you will not be able to move; so that they can stop people from coming here. But you braved all their challenges. When I came into this arena, I almost shed tears of joy.
“What I can assure you is that if you vote PDP to power next month — the way you have made us happy today — we will also make you happy in Ekiti state.
“We will go out of our way to provide everything that you want us to provide. Some people are talking about the road from here to Akure — we will do it. Not only that, all the roads that connect you to other states — we shall construct them.
“Ekiti state is a centre of intellectual discourse. You have more educated people in this state than in any other state in the country. I can assure you that the PDP federal government will make use of the human capital that God has endowed you in Ekiti.
“It is your God-given gift. We shall utilise the human resources that God has given you.”
Abubakar added that women and youths in Ekiti will benefit from the fund he has planned to set aside to tackle unemployment.
“Young men and women who want to get involved in enterprises will be given loans and capital so that they can achieve their lifetime ambitions,” he added.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, while addressing the crowd at the Ekiti Parapo Pavilion, pointed accusing fingers at the powers within and the power without to wanted to truncate their plans.
He accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State of sabotaging the presidential rally held in the state by allegedly forcing the National Road Transport Union Workers (NURTW) to withdraw services across the state.
The drivers had withdrawn their services, saying that they have declared the day for prayer and fasting. A leader of the union, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that they had scheduled the day for praying to forestall accidents and deaths on the road.
Ayu said: “Some of you came here trekking, some climbed bicycles, others used their private vehicles to convey people here because you have a political party that does not believe in democracy. If you believe in democracy, you will allow other political parties to express themselves.
“The enemy without and the enemy within made sure that there will be no vehicular movement today in the whole of Ekiti but you disappointed them. All of you are here because you are committed to the rescue and rebuilding of the country. Nobody can stop you from liberating yourselves from the misrule of the current government. They have not been able to give you a good road. They have been unable to even maintain the roads that the PDP built.”
The presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar, said some enemies within the party planned to cripple consultation in Ado-Ekiti, reiterating his earlier pledge to set aside $10 billion as lifeline for youths’ employment.
In his remarks, the vice presidential candidate of the party, Ifeanyi Okowa, said: “I salute all our leaders in Ekiti for staying firm despite what they did to us because we saw the excitement in the Ekiti people. What we saw shows that they support Atiku. No matter what the APC government did to us, they cannot stop us.”
See photos from the rally below:
