Tinubu: APC targets 800,000 votes in Ekiti, says North will deliver

By Omeiza Ajayi, Tinubu

The ruling All Progressives Congress APC has set a target of 800,000 votes in Ekiti State for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, with the Director General of its Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, assuring that Northern Nigeria “is ready for Asiwaju 2027” and “is going to deliver him from A to Z.”

Yari spoke on Thursday at the party’s campaign rally in Ado-Ekiti, where he asked the state to improve on the roughly 80 per cent it gave Tinubu in 2022.

“Out of 1,080,000 votes, and PVC collected over 900,000, this is my request, and by extension, of course, of the President to you. We are looking for 800,000 votes, representing about 90 per cent,” he said.

He told the gathering that the state governor had earlier given a breakdown of the Tinubu administration’s achievements and said the president “did not forget Ekiti”, citing schools, universities, roads, education support for youths and women empowerment.

Yari said the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, the Allied Peoples Movement APM and the Social Democratic Party SDP who contested the last governorship election against the governor were at the rally “to show solidarity, their togetherness with the Governor when it comes to Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027.”

He added that the reward for a heavy turnout would be more federal presence in the state. “The President promised to do more for the Ekiti people,” he said.

Turning to the North, Yari said, “We in Northern Nigeria, Bola, are more of us than you in Ekiti, than you in Ondo, than you in Oyo, than you in Osun, than you in Lagos. Bola Ahmed supported our children and supported our people to become number one citizens in this country up to three times. So, we in the north, we are ready for Asiwaju 2027, and we are going to deliver him from A to Z.”

The PCC boss also challenged the opposition to say what it would do differently. “What are they going to do differently than what we are having today? Government brings down the inflation,” he said.

“As we promised Nigerians, we are going to campaign with our numbers, with what we have done for Nigerians. We are not AI product people. We are saying the truth, and we are asking to go and take that truth.

“All the numbers are there, ranging from inflation, ranging from exchange rates, and ranging from balance of trade. All of them are there for anyone to go and take. If they have answers, we are waiting for their answers,” he added.

The National Chairman of the APC, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, said his role at the rally was to present the party’s candidates, “starting from the President down to the National Assembly to the House of Assembly candidates in Ekiti state.”

Yilwatda pointed to road projects in the state, some of them ongoing and some completed by the president. “We have a road from here to Akure constructed by Mr President. Our governor was elected on the basis of his performance. So also was the President,” he said.

He described Tinubu as “a performer” and “a reformer”, saying the president had reformed the tax system in favour of the poor. “Today, all those small ‘mama puts’ in the market, people who earn less than 100 million Naira per annum, don’t pay tax. Freeing legitimate money being earned by the lowest people in society,” he said.

The APC chairman said parents from poor homes would vote for the president because their children now have access to education through the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund). “Every month, they are giving 20,000 Naira as a maintenance and upkeep fee. And that has helped the child of the poorest of the poor in the society to go to school,” he said.

He urged Ekiti voters to turn out in large numbers for the National Assembly candidates, led by Senator Opeyemi, on January 16, and to return all House of Assembly members in February.

“Today, I present President Bola Ahmed Tinubu again for a second term. People of Ekiti, come out in your numbers on the 16th of January,” Yilwatda said.

END