imageINAUGURAL ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY, MR. PETER AYODELE FAYOSE, GOVERNOR OF EKITI STATE OF NIGERIA, ON THE OCCASION OF HIS SWEARING-IN CEREMONY AS GOVERNOR ON THURSDAY 16th OCTOBER,2014 AT THE OLUYEMI KAYODE STADIUM, ADO-EKITI.
Mr President, the Commander-in- Chief of Armed Forces,
National Chairman of PDP,
Past and present members of the National Assembly,
HE, the State Governors,
Former State Governors,
YE, My Dear Wife,
Honourable Ministers,
Rt. Hon. Speaker and members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly,
My Lord, the Chief Judge of Ekiti State,
My Lord Spiritual and Temporal,
All party leaders,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Gentlemen of the Press,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
MY GOOD PEOPLE OF EKITI STATE
The ceremony of swearing-in, in the form that was just witnessed today, is the second time of my oath-taking as the Governor of Ekiti State. You will recall that I took the first oath of office on May 29, 2003, as the flag bearer of the People?s Democratic Party after defeating the then incumbent Governor and his party, the Alliance for Democracy. That mandate was truncated three and half years later through my unjust and forceful removal from office on October 16, 2006. The serial events are still fresh in our minds to be recounted here.
Today marks the eighth anniversary of that dark episode. Also today, October 16, 2014 marks the epoch of my inauguration as Governor the second time, under the same umbrella of the PDP, at this same venue and before the same good people of Ekiti State. The total glory of these unusual dynamics of history, which are too precise to be taken away from divinity, goes to the Almighty God, the Alpha and the Omega.
I want to specially thank the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, the Vice-President, the Chairman of our great Party, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, the National Executive Committee, PDP Governors, and indeed the leadership and entire membership of our Party for the confidence reposed in me and for their unflinching support in the struggle to reclaim my mandate.
Also, I want to express profound gratitude to the good people of Ekiti State for keeping the faith and for identifying with my destiny, eight years after my experience of travesty of justice and sojourn in the wilderness of life. I am inclined to believe that as salvation came to the Jews and Gentiles through one man, God shall help me to use my own favour and grace to liberate the Ekiti People from the shackles of poverty, want and retrogression. I promise to serve you far more than I did during my first term.
THE TRAGEDY OF THE PAST
Good people of Ekiti State, it is highly regrettable that we were made to swim against the tides in the last eight years. The popular will of the majority of our people was supplanted with the selfish interests of a powerful few. We were seized in the jugular by power mongering demagogues who foisted on us an emergency rule at first. They thereafter manipulated hallowed democratic institutions and produced pretenders and interlopers to superintend over us. The ship of state drifted with neither a compass nor a navigator. Our state witnessed many tragedies, including destruction of human lives and properties. There were waste and unproductive expenditure of huge sums of money, considerable slowing down of progress, and incalculable sufferings and deprivations.
There was smear and malicious campaign of calumny against the innocent and orchestrated celebration of the desperate. They could however fool all of the people some of the time, but could not sustain their foolery for long. Ekiti people have seen beyond their veil of fraud and deception and rejected
them all.
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October 10, 2016, 09:28:53 PM