The victory of Governor-elect Kayode Fayemi in the April 14, 2018 election shows that Ekiti people are tired of being a lone state in the South West not governed by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredeolu of Ondo State has said.

Akeredeolu spoke to journalists in the Hague, the Netherlands on Tuesday, on the margins of President Buhari’s official visit to the Netherlands.

The Governor who is part of the President’s delegation to the European country commended the people of the neighbouring Ekiti for keying into ‘‘the great Nigeria project’’, under an APC-led administration.

‘‘The victory of Fayemi is a product of research. We have a party at the centre controlling 24 States. I was part of the campaign and the people of Ekiti were tired of being a lone state in the South West that were not part of the Federal set up.

‘‘They were like a sore thumb being the only state in the South west not governed by APC, so the people had to key into the great project called Nigeria that we are trying to reinvent.

‘‘The people were ready to restore their land and values back because the values were lost. The people went out to vote in Ekiti to make sure that the reclaim their values,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, the Ondo Governor has called on development partners and the organised private sector to invest more funds on agricultural research in Nigeria.

He made the appeal after a tour of a Research Centre for greenhouses in Bleiswijk, in the western Netherlands operated by Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR), one of the world’s top agricultural research institution.

‘‘What is clear at WUR is that a lot of the research work here are being sponsored by companies who are interested in agriculture. My takeaway from this visit is why companies, banks in Nigeria not interested in investing on agriculture research.

‘‘I know research like this are capital intensive therefore something has to be done. We must have policy that will encourage private companies in Nigeria to finance researches on agriculture,’’ he said.

The governor was among a high-level delegation that visited WUR, in the course of President Buhari’s ongoing three-day visit to the Netherlands.

Others who accompanied him to the institution highly revered for agricultural innovation are Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment, Aisha Abubakar, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Rtd. Maj-Gen. Babagana Monguno (Rtd), and Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State