The Ekiti governorship candidate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bisi Kolawole, has attributed the recent cases of kidnapping in the state to unemployment made worse by the current administration of Governor Kayode Fayemi. 

Mr Kolawole made the allegation while responding to questions during the Sunday  governorship debate organised by Channels TV, ahead of the governorship election slated for Saturday 18th, and monitored by Peoples Gazette. 

Responding to questions on how each candidate as governor intends to handle insecurity and recent cases of kidnapping in the state, Mr Kolawole said unemployment was largely responsible for insecurity and that job creation would resolve the issue. 

“At the heart of insecurity today is unemployment. Some of these kidnappers are University graduates who kidnap to get ransom since they have no jobs.

“When the PDP government created jobs, Fayemi government came and laid them off, that is why there is so much insecurity in Ekiti today,” Mr Kolawole asserted. 

He promised that all 2,000 workers employed by former governor Ayo Fayose but laid off by Mr Fayemi would be reinstated if he becomes the next Ekiti governor.

Meanwhile, governorship candidate on the platform of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), and the only female candidate, Kemi Elebute-Halle, has schooled her fellow candidates that they wouldn’t be doing workers favour for paying workers’ salaries and gratuity

Mrs Elebute- Halle was speaking against the backdrop of other candidates’ response on job creation and poverty reduction in the state, on which former governor Segun Oni stated that he never owed pension or gratuity when he was last in office.

“You are not doing workers’ favour for paying salaries and gratuity. You make deductions from their money every month which goes into pension accounts, why should they die in the  queue waiting for the money they worked for?

“I think I need to apologise to all the Ekiti pensioners on behalf of the present and past government for denying them the fruit of their labour.

“These people put your money in fixed deposits accruing interest for them and when it is time for them to pay you, they will be sounding as if they want to do you a favour,” Mrs Elebute- Halle said.

Responding to the question on job creation and poverty reduction, former governor Oni promised to create a hundred million jobs in his first year in office.

“I will create 100 million jobs in the first one year in office through livestock and fishery for which we have a ready market. 

“We will also explore other means like ICT to improve the Internally Generated Revenue of the state,” he promised. 

The governorship candidate of the ruling APC, Biodun Abayomi, who came in halfway into the debate also promised to develop the agriculture sector to create more jobs.

Other candidates who participated in the debate are Oluwole Oluyede of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Ranti Ajayi of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), who promised to invest more in the private sector to shore up the IGR of the state.