The Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  on Sunday said the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Major Gen Muhammadu Buhari, would lose woefully in the state in next month’s election.

The party also expressed confidence that it would win the entire National and State Assemblies seats as well as record overwhelming victory for President Goodluck Jonathan in the coming elections in the state.

The PDP, in a statement by its state Secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko, in
Ado-Ekiti, said at a special executive meeting marking the end of 2014, appraised the political situation in the state and was confident that Buhari had no chance in Ekiti.

The party also passed a vote of confidence on Governor Ayo Fayose, saying he has brought the state back to the path of progress.

“We look at the main opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) and all we can see that they can never recover from the thrashing they got during the governorship poll. The people of the state have rejected them and their hypocrisy.

“They will not win any seat in the February state and national assembly’s elections in the state, while their presidential candidate, Buhari, will lose woefully.

“Who is going to vote a party that does not have the interest of the people at heart? Their main stock in trade is to engage in fruitless propaganda and thank God, the people have now seen their deceit and they cannot cover anybody’s face with any veil again.

“We are soliciting for the support of the people for our party and the administration of Fayose, which has come to make a positive difference in the lives of the people of the state,” he said.

However, the APC in the state has berated the statement credited to the state Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Samuel Akosile, for disowning the teachers who apologised to former Governor Kayode Fayemi in a live radio programme over their opposition to him during the June 21, 2014 governorship poll.

In a statement by the state Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, the party accused Akosile of partisanship, saying the statement was unfortunate if it was actually signed by the NUT boss.

“The statement does not represent the collective views of the teachers who celebrated Christmas in hunger compared to the pomp  with which they celebrated previous Christmas under Governor Fayemi’ government,” Olatubosun said.

Speaking about the NUT boss’s tirade against Fayemi, the APC Spokesman challenged Akosile to deny the various welfare packages for teachers during Fayemi’s administration ranging from salary increment four times to promotion of teachers which had been suspended by previous administrations.

“The Teachers Development Needs Assessment (TDNA), which Akosile said was meant to sack the teachers, was a ploy to deceive the public and paint Fayemi’s administration in bad light. The TDNA was to know their areas of strengths and weaknesses and then train them for professional proficiency and sound output,” Olatubosun explained.

The APC spokesman regretted that the opposition used the likes of Akosile to twist the good intention of the administration, saying that TDNA over which Fayemi was demonised had been made compulsory by the PDP-led federal government, which he noted was a vindication of Fayemi’s policy.

Tasking the NUT boss to explain what Fayose between 2003 and 2006 did for teachers apart from buying clothing materials (ankara) for them on teachers’ day after deducting the cost from their salaries, Olatubosun listed Fayemi’s life-lifting schemes for teachers thus:

“Teachers got increase in their salaries four times. From N7, 500 minimum wages that Fayemi met in 2010, he increased it to N13, 000 while teachers also got 33 per cent relativity pay and later the wage was increased to N19, 300 with teachers getting their 27.5 per cent pecuniary allowance.

“Akosile also forgot to mention that under Fayemi’s administration, teachers were paid 20 per cent of their salary as Core Subject allowance for those teaching core subjects and another 20 per cent as rural posting allowance as incentive for those posted to rural areas. But today, all these allowances have been stopped by Akosile’s “teachers-friendly,” Fayose.

He said Akosile also failed to say that 1,953 primary school teachers whose promotions were pending since 2010 were promoted in 2012, while another 2,300 were promoted in 2014 even as1,019 public schools (primary and secondary) were renovated by Fayemi’s administration.