Chief Olusegun Oni, the Deputy National Chairman (South), All Progressives Congress (APC) and Ekiti governorship aspirant, has promised to consolidate his previous achievements if elected governor.
NAN recalls that Oni was elected governor of Ekiti in April 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, but was removed from office on Oct. 15, 2010 following the judgment of an Appeal Court, which ruled against him.
Oni said told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja that he would continue with his administration’s infrastructural development programme, which made the then government popular.
“We believe that there cannot be development if there is no good road network for the transportation of food products to the market where they will be sold to consumers.”
He added that the construction of a standard road network would ensure the complement other economic development efforts as it would enable people living in the rural areas to convey their products from the farms without overwhelming challenges.
“Those are the ones who farm, they are the ones who produce food and other items and we can easily move them to the market.
“When the roads are good, we can move some manufacturing and processing equipment into the rural areas.
“While in office, we almost set up at least one power plant, but unfortunately the plan was aborted by the annulment of my election by the judgment of the Appeal Court.
“As you know, without power we cannot do much and right now Ekiti is not servicing up to 10 per cent of its power requirement,’’ he said.
He said that his administration’s micro-credit programme was a huge success as it enabled many people to build up their petty businesses.
“As far as I am concerned, it wasn’t a success; we are hoping that we will redo it.
“This time around we will put a very solid and strong cooperative system in place.
“When we have cooperatives running and they understand what their role should be in the development process, then we can initiate a micro-credit system and I believe that the system will work better than it worked before.
The Independent National Electoral Commission has scheduled the Ekiti State Governorship election to hold in July 2018.