2019: Fayemi denies approaching Atiku for help on governance

Governor of Ekiti State Kayode Fayemi has denied reports in the media credited to former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, the he (Fayemi) had upon his election last July, approached him (Atiku) for an economic policy document and that he had obliged him one.

Atiku was said to have made the statement during a meeting he had with the business community in Lagos on Thursday.

But Fayemi, who countered the claims in a press statement made available to newsmen on Sunday in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state state capital, by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Yinka Oyebode, said that the PDP presidential hopeful must have been misquoted in the report of the meeting, saying: “We would like to believe that the former Vice President was misquoted on this matter as nothing of such ever happened.

The statement goes on to say that:

“For the sake of the general public, it is important to set the record straight, Governor Fayemi never had any personal encounter with Vice president Abubakar when he ran for office in 2007 and he could not have asked him for policy ideas then and even in 2018 when he ran for his second term. While Fayemi has always extended usual courtesies to the former Vice President, the two men have not seen in the last two years.

“Dr Fayemi’s policy document “Making Poverty History in Ekiti State – The Eight Point Agenda” was produced and widely circulated in 2006, a year ahead of the 2007 election. Again, in 2018, his policy document – Reclaiming our Land, Restoring Our Values containing the four pillars of his agenda was not a product of any encounter of the former VP.

“As a scholar of democratic governance, policy formulation and articulation is Dr Fayemi’s forte and that probably was the reason he was put in charge of Policy, Strategy and Research in the President Mohammadu Buhari’s presidential campaign in 2015, and he delivered on the assignment.

“While we would like to believe Alhaji Abubakar was misquoted and treat this as one of those social media exaggerations, if he actually made the allegations at the meeting, as reported, then it is unfortunate and unbecoming of a politician desirous of occupying the highest office in the land.”