In his speech at Ibadan, Oyo state capital on Tuesday, October 11, the Governor said  a minimum of 200,000 security personnel is needed to “quickly bring the current wave of insecurity to a halt”

He said “There are two things that we need to address quickly to bring the current wave of insecurity to a halt.  We need to have a conversation on how we can recruit a large number of people to join the police and the military, even on a short service or otherwise. By available statistics, we need a minimum of 200,000 personnel to boost the fighting power of our men. This number is very large and a potential financial and logistic nightmare, yet we cannot delay any further. The ungoverned spaces need to be closed up quickly by motivated men with the singular objective to save the nation. That takes us to the number two issue of financing and arming large recruitment. With this, we can use the existing orientation camps to train willing and able graduates to reflate the security personnel under a special arrangement that will be worked out. That way, the fund that is currently deployed to the NYSC can be used with just some additional funding, which could be sourced through a national emergency fund for the next five to 10 years. Those who cannot join the military services can serve in their community without pay if we must still retain the NYSC for everyone. To incentivise those who may volunteer to serve, they will have a separate certificate and medal of honour in addition to having priority for military, paramilitary and civil or public service recruitment after service.”

The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum whose second tenure as governor will expire next year said in an interview on Channels Television that he believes it is the dream of every politician to hold such an office.

He said, “I get asked this question all the time; I don’t know anyone, any serious-minded politician who will have the opportunity to govern a country with the blessings that we have, in spite of the challenges, that will not give it a shot.”

Ayodele had sponsored campaign posters canvassing for Governor Fayemi to contest as a presidential candidate under the platform of the All Progressive Congress in 2023, with a tagline that reads “Support His Excellency Dr John Kayode Fayemi for President 2023.”

However, following a motion titled “Calling for an investigation into the alleged unsolicited and unauthorised campaign in the media in flagrant disregard to Extant Regulations by Chairman, Ikere Local Government Area, Mr Femi Ayodele”, which was moved by the Majority Leader of the Assembly, Chief Gboyega Aribisogan and seconded by Mr Tajudeen Akingbolu, Ekiti West Constituency 1, APC, the Ekiti lawmakers unanimously agreed to suspend the council chairman pending the completion of the assembly’s investigation on the matter.

The lawmakers insisted that Ayodele’s action was ill-conceived and is flagrantly antithetical to the extant provisions of the Electoral Act, 2010 as amended.

Fayemi who accused Ojudu of blackmail and being behind the “fabricated” report, stated that he had no plan nor reason to see President Buhari on Tuesday afternoon.

The Ekiti State Governor who urged Nigerians to ignore the story which he said is a “highly illogical concoction”, said he later visited the presidential villa to meet with Buhari’s Chief of Staff Ibrahim Gambari, but not with Giadom.

The statement read “The attention of the general public is being drawn to a misleading publication… with the headline ‘Fayemi’s failed mission to Villa with Giadom’, published in the online edition… on Wednesday, June 24th, 2020. The falsehood, we gathered reliably, was fabricated by a senior aide of the Presidency and a former Senator, Babafemi Ojudu, and planted in The Nation Newspaper, after it was rejected by some State House Correspondents, who rebuffed the former Senator for the misleading and malicious story. It is on record that Senator Ojudu, in his desperate bid to rubbish Governor Fayemi, had told his close associates that he would battle Governor Fayemi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) with falsehood and cheap blackmail in his nefarious attempt to destabilize APC in Ekiti State. For the purpose of clarity, it is important to state that the Nation’s report was clearly a misleading one designed to cast aspersion on the person of Governor Fayemi and create an impression that the NGF Chairman is an unwanted visitor at the Villa. The largely unsubstantiated report was filled with bile, childish and unexplainable fury that signified nothing, just like a tale fit only for the tabloids. In setting the record straight, we hereby state unequivocally that Governor Fayemi had no plan nor reason to see Mr President on Tuesday late afternoon as maliciously presented in the Nation’s report. The Governor had earlier seen Mr President at noon in the company of three of his colleagues – Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Governor Simon Lalong (Plateau) and Governor Badaru Abubakar (Jigawa). Also present at that meeting was the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari and Honourable Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami. Governor Fayemi was in the villa later in the afternoon to see the COS and State Chief of Protocol (SCOP). The Ekiti State Governor was never denied any opportunity to see President Buhari as he did not ask to see the President and neither did he go with Chief Giadom. Governor Fayemi’s position on the APC crisis has been to consistently subsume his views in the position of the Progressives Governors Forum as expressed by the Chairman. He has not spoken on the party crisis in any public forum but continues to urge all members and lovers of the party to exercise restraint and support the leader of the party, President Mohammadu Buhari and other leaders desirous of resolution to give peace a chance.”

The Ekiti State Governor who was instrumental to the emergence of Oshiomhole as the Chairman of the APC alongside other Governors said this in reaction to the move to remove the former Edo State Governor as the party’s chairman.

He said “The governors were instrumental to the emergence of Adams Oshiomhole as the chairman of the party. He was their colleague, so they worked together. I don’t think there’s a view about the leadership of the party in the PGF. I think there’s a clear view that the party can do a lot more than it has done.  If we are not careful; if we do not institutionalize processes and procedures in the party and make it more inclusive than it is, we will not have a party when President Muhammadu Buhari leaves the government. This is because he is the unifying force of our party. The governors want the party structures to function effectively and more regularly. Adams will also say that some of us have been at the forefront of pushing for even policy convention on an annual basis. Adams is a veteran, passionate and an ideological politician. I have worked with him closely. So I don’t see a divergence in these views. But governors also want to be respected as leaders of the party. They don’t want their views to be given short shrift.”