Former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, is of the opinion that those trying to overturn the mandate of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, are only daydreaming.
Fayose who on Tuesday was a guest speaker in a television program, ‘Politics Today’, said the 2023 presidential election is over and a winner has emerged, adding that whoever did not win on the field should know that the winner will not sit back and watch their victory disrupted through the courts.
“For anybody to say you will unseat Ahmed Bola Tinubu, you are daydreaming, its a nightmare you are putting yourself through; that election has come and gone.
“When you win somebody in Nigerian politics….,let me tell you, it is better to win on the field, this one you are talking about going to court is an afterthought, after launch.
“When you are shouting court, court, will the other people be looking at you to go and take over the court ahead of them?” Fayose asked rhetorically.
“In America, the former president is still saying he was rigged out. He who comes to equity must have clean hands. Today, in Nigeria, that election has come and gone but you are at liberty to go to court.”
The former governor explained that in the build up to polls, members of Integrity Group — comprising five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors and other party chieftains — were asked to support a Southern presidential candidate in their different states.
Stressing that he has no regrets neither will he apologize for supporting Tinubu, Fayose said there was a directive for those in the Integrity Group to support a Southern candidate and while those from the South East and South South chose to support Peter Obi of the Labour Party, he chose to side with Asiwaju who is from his region the South West.
Fayose said he is not desperate for any appointment, adding that he is somebody who will not “cringe because of a piece of meal” and will never move to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“Many people in Nigeria have been confronted with what they have said at different times and they either recant or say something new. I stand here to tell you that I will never be a member of the APC,” he noted.
“I am not in politics for what it is anymore. I have been given a fair opportunity to lead Ekiti two times and defeated two incumbents.
“Nigeria is not a country we now take for granted. You will see that by the outcome of this election that a lot of people were displaced as a result of taking people for granted.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 1, declared Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
However, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP have approached the election tribunal to challenge the victory of Tinubu.