With Mumini Abdulkareem
One of the chairmanship aspirants in Ekiti for the local government election slated for November 2017, Yinka Dallas, last night reacted to allegation that he presented unsubstantiated credentials for screening.
There had been allegations that Dallas could not corroborate credentials submitted to the All Progressives Congress (APC) screening committee with the claims he had Bsc in Mathematics.
But reacting to the issue last night, Dallas said the results he submitted for the screening are subject to verification adding that he stood by his results.
“I still stand by all the results I submitted for my screening which are subjected to confirmation or verification. We paid some certain amount of money to the screening committee which are meant to verify our certificates. Any where they doubt my result; the screening committee have the financial capacity to verify it”, he added.
On the controversy in Ekiti local government over the local government chairmanship contest, Dallas explained that he totally align and abide by the directive of the leader of the party in the state, Dr Bukola Saraki.
“The last time we met with our leader, where we zone the seat to, which fortunately happened to be my district comprised of four wards (Obo/Isapa/Eruku/Koro), the leader said were there is already a commissioner and special adviser, they should concede it for the two areas.
Obo-Ile is not contesting. Among the four districts, Koro is having Special Adviser and Eruku is having commissioner, Isapa is not having anything and Obo-Ile happened to have the last elected chairman the last time it came to our districts. Now Obo-Ile is not contesting at all remaining Isapa alone but now Koro has stepped down and they have Special Adviser. Two peoples are contesting from Koro, I am the only one contesting from Isapa.
“The last stakeholders meetings we held, the leader said where you cannot resolve and come out with a consensus, we can go for primary and I abide with the leaders advice. I am ready for primary in Ekiti local government.
He said he remained confident that he would emerged as the preferred candidate from the primary adding that he has the full support of 80 percent of stakeholders and executives.
“I am forty years old and my first daughter is in 200-level in University of Ilorin. If a can tutor a child to that stage and up till now, I have never applied for a job, I have been the CEO of my company with seven staff. Nobody can say I am too small to manage a local government which had been my dream to burnish poverty through agriculture and mineral resources if given the mandate”, he added.
Meanwhile, the party chairman in the local government, Alhaji Raji AbdulGaniy has debunked the allegation that the local government chairmanship contest is causing ripples in Ekiti.
Speaking with Pilot Politics on the issue, AbdulaGaniy said there is nothing of such adding that everybody is on the same page over the issue in line with the directive of the leadership of the party ably led by Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki.
He said the stockholders has shortlisted three aspirants and anybody that emerged as the party’s candidates will be supported and assisted by the others
He added that what is important is the success of the party to win in all the wards in Ekiti.
