Fayose sets age limit for contestants in Ekiti council poll

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State

• Kalu asks him to stop At-tacking Buhari 
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has set age limit for contestants into the state’s local council election.

A statement by his Special Assistant on New Media and Public Communications, Lere Olayinka, fixed the eligibility age at 18 to 40 years.

While barring aspirants above 50 years from contesting, the governor commended the National Assembly for its recent passage of a bill on ‘Not Too Young to Run.’

Fayose said he was enforcing the provisions of a bill in the state, which seeks to broaden youth’s involvement in governance.

He added that the National Assembly’s passage of the bill that fixed 35 years as the eligibility age for the office of the president, 35 years for governor, 30 for Senate and House of Representatives and 25 for state assemblies, has removed the age barrier in elective offices.

“The bill has reinforced my position on the age limit for local council positions in Ekiti State. It is my position that our youths must be allowed to participate in governance since they are the ones who provide the largest votes
during elections.

“Most importantly, the future belongs to the youths and I believe that they should be given prominent roles in the structuring of that future that belongs to them,” the statement reads.

The Guardian learnt at the weekend that some members of the Peoples Democratic Party who have been edged out by the limit, are planning for a showdown.

“It is unprecedented in the history of Nigeria that a qualified candidate would be disallowed on account of his age, when the Constitution recognises that freedom under the universal adult suffrage,” he said.

But the state PDP Publicity Secretary, Jackson Adebayo said: “The idea is not about the Constitution, but to give the youths an opportunity because of the disadvantage they face even at the grassroots level.”

Meanwhile, a former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu has condemned Fayose’s barrage of At-tacks on President Muhammad Buhari.

Kalu spoke at the inauguration of the Ndigbo Support Group for Governor Yahaya Bello in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital at the weekend.

While urging him to concentrate on governance, Kalu said it was wrong for a governor to At-tack the president’s private life.

Kalu said: “I am one of the founding members of the PDP and if the party were to be a company, I would own 90 per cent of it, because I raised the money that was used to form the party.”

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