Chief Reuben Famuyibo, a former presidential candidate for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1993, has left the All Progressives Congress and announced that he will run as a third force on the Accord Party’s platform for the June 18 governorship election in Ekiti State.

One of Ekiti’s founding fathers, Famuyibo, stated that the desire of stakeholders both inside and outside the state for him to be on the ballot drove him to leave the incumbent APC and pursue his dream in Accord.

Speaking with reporters in the state capital of Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, the former APC candidate for governor claimed that the ruling party’s leadership was not giving all candidates equal opportunities, which was why his supporters and admirers were urging him to run for office on different platforms.

The lawmaker, who was born in Ado-Ekiti, said that the procedures leading up to the APC primary had been biased in favor of the purportedly chosen candidate for governor, saying that “it would be unwise to go ahead with that situation looking at our plans for the state.”
According to Famuyibo, the stakeholders have called for him to run in the June 18 election because he has created well-researched and workable plans for the state’s transformation and rescue.

He claimed that “youth empowerment, industrialization, modern and technologically inclined education and agriculture, enhanced healthcare delivery and women empowerment” are the key points of his succinct program.

It is exceedingly unfair and the process is already skewed and prepared for the Governor’s aspirant to emerge, that much is certain. We have noticed developments in the APC in the previous few months that the state government has been deploying state machinery for an aspirant.”

“The Governor is teleguiding the process, and I can’t continue in that capacity. I told my followers that the governor would not be casting a ballot in the general elections.

As one of the founding fathers of Ekiti, I will therefore be running for governor on June 18 under the banner of the Accord Party in response to calls and consultations I have received from both inside and beyond the community. We’ll work together to save Ekiti.

Remember that I come from Ado-Ekiti, which has more votes than three local government areas combined (almost 167,000), making it the most populous voting district in the state. That should tell you something. We know we will win.

“You’ve known me for years; I don’t think politics should be done or die because it’s about serving the people. I can exploit my excellent reputation to win the election.

According to Famuyibo, his team has started aggressively mobilizing residents of the 16 local government areas through house-to-house interactions in order to actualize the project in time for the June 18 election.