EKITI GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION:
FAYEMI, APC party flagbearer gives Peoples Democratic Party a BLOODY NOSE, wins in FAYOSE’S LGA
*Defeats Fayose’s protege, Kolapo Olusola in 12 Local Government Areas out of 16
* Fayemi polled 197,459 while Olusola scored 178,114 votes
* Moneybags, vote-buyers, incidence of violence almost mar election
* ‘Election was peaceful and to a large extent free and fair’-Dr Joe Okei Odumakin, President, Women Arise
* ‘FAYEMI IN, the people of Ekiti have spoken against their Governor, outgoing governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose’-GARBA SHEHU, Senior Special Adviser to Nigerian President on Media & Publicity
TRUE, in any contest, one party will emerge the winner while the other becomes the loser. And it is also true that the voice of men is the voice of God. In an election that was showed incidences of violence, tension, acrimony yesterday in Ekiti state, the people of Ekiti resolved that DR. KAYODE FAYEMI representing All Progressives Congress, APC, is the leader they have so chosen to govern them. In a fiercely contested governorship election, Fayemi humiliated outgoing Governor’s Ayodele Fayose’s protege, Kolapo Olusola the Peoples Democratic Party in 12 Local Government Areas out of 16. Fayemi polled 197,459 while Olusola scored 178,114 votes.
Eye witness reports that Fayemi has a landslide victory in the Ekiti State governorship election won on the poll held on Saturday. From the results of the 16 local government areas in the state, Fayemi defeated his closest rival, Olusola in 12 LGAs. The election witnessed a large turnout of voters and early arrival of the ad hoc staff and supervisors of INEC at polling units.
Voting materials also arrived early in many polling units across the state while voters conducted themselves well during accreditation process. But tension set in as allegations of vote-buying were levelled against party agents by voters in some polling units. In some cases, the situation led to friction among loyalists of various political parties.
For Ward 12 in the Igbehin area of Ado-Ekiti, an elderly voter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, accused APC of offering N5,000 to those who had the Permanent Voter Card to secure their votes. He said he rejected the offer.
His words: “I was offered N5,000 to vote for the party but I rejected it. I am 73 years old retired teacher. I cannot allow the future of my children to be bought by moneybags. I don’t know how we descended to this level when people brazenly offer money to people to secure their votes. It was not like this in the past. Will our votes count with this problem?”
In Ayegbaju and Oye-Ekiti, there were allegations that party agents paid those who had no PVC N2,000 to vote in connivance with the INEC officials. A source, who simply identified herself as Bimbo, said after those who had PVC had voted, some of the remaining ballot papers were thumb-printed by youths who had no PVC with the promise of financial gratification.
She said, “If you look well and observe the polling units, the INEC officials connive to allow this thing to happen. They pretended to check the fingerprint but it is fraud they are perpetrating.”
PDP was also accused of offering voters N3,000 each to secure their votes. Apart from the reported N3,000 allegedly paid to some civil servants and pensioners by the PDP-led state government, the party agents were accused of going from house to house, approaching voters who possessed PVC.
Prof. Abdulganiy Raji, INEC’s preparation, which the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, had described as foolproof, failed some of the tests on the election day. Although election materials got to many of the polling units early, there were reports of the card readers failing to function properly.
At Ward 11, Unit 009 in Ishan-Ekiti, where the APC candidate, Kayode Fayemi, voted, his wife, Erelu Bisi, could not vote immediately as the card reader failed to recognise her PVC. The husband expressed apprehension over the situation, saying her vote must count for him.
Loyalists of the PDP in Ado-Ekiti also accused INEC of deliberately allowing the APC supporters to vote while card readers rejected PDP voters in some of the polling units. At the polling unit in front of the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, a man, who identified himself as a youth leader of the PDP in his ward, and who also identified himself as Alawe, said the card reader failed to recognise more than half of the people who wanted to vote for the PDP candidate, Kolapo Olusola.
Elsewhere in Ayede, in the North Senatorial District of the state, some voters also accused INEC of failure to perfect the technology and innovations deployed for the election before introducing them to the Ekiti election.
The election also recorded brigandage and fighting in some parts of the state. A man was injured in a fight among party supporters at Unit 11, Ward 04, at Ijigbo junction in Ado-Ekiti around 7.45am as queues were being formed after the arrival of INEC officials. It was not clear what caused the fight but it was quickly checked by policemen at the unit.
For Ward 10, Unit 02, security operatives accosted a female voter who had followed the due process of accreditation and voting, only to attempt photographing her ballot paper. The incident prompted uproar from other voters which led female officers to seize the voter’s mobile telephone while also compelling her to delete the photograph.
At one scene, a middle-aged man approached a youth and accused him of voting at the nearby Ward 10, Unit 13 and leaving the polling station to disrupt the conduct at Ward 10, Unit 02. Another man was heard complaining that he voted and showed evidence to a political party as he demanded payment.
At Ward 10, Unit 13 in Ado-Ekiti, voters were agitated as a domestic electoral observer confided in one of our correspondents that the ‘see and buy’ arrangement had been at play, albeit discreetly. The atmosphere at the ward was chaotic as a large number of frustrated voters unsuccessfully tried to get registered as a result of a malfunctioned card reader. Elderly men and women stood in the sun for more than three hours before provision was made for the replacement of the faulty card reader.
Dr. Joe Odumakin, President of Women Arise, one of the accredited observer groups that observed the just concluded Ekiti State Governorship Election concludes: “the election was peaceful and to a large extent free and fair.”
In a press statement signed by Odumakin, it reads: “Women Arise, one of the accredited observer group that observed the just concluded Ekiti State Governorship Election is pleased to inform the general public that the election was peaceful and to a large extent free and fair. The turn out of voters was impressive but was short if compared to the number of eligible voters who actually collected their PVCs before the election.
“In all the 16 LGAs, election materials and election officials arrived early, accreditation and voting started at 8am except in some few wards and polling units where the process was a bit delayed. There were few technical hitches where the card reader malfunctioned but the officials were able to get round the challenge a couple of hours after.
“There was heavy presence of security agencies but they conducted themselves well. The party agents though very anxious also conducted themselves well, except in some places like odo ado and oke ila in ado ekiti local government where violence broke out between the agents of the two prominent political parties. There were glaring vote buying and inducement of voters across the state, by the 2 major political parties.
“The various LG collation centres collated their results and went to present it to the State Returning Officers at the State collation centre. The result were added, compiled and was announced this morning with Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the APC “having fulfilled requirements of the law and got the highest votes is the winner and is returned elected.”
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari in State House Press Release said “the people of Ekiti have spoken against their Governor, outgoing governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose.” In a well crafted release, it reads: “The people of the politically significant State of Ekiti have spoken against their Governor, outgoing governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, who told them that the governorship election they just had was a referendum on President Muhammadu Buhari. He said candidates Kayode Fayemi and Olusola Eleka were pawns and that he and President Buhari were the actual contestants.
“In what observers said was the most intense, and a most angry campaign, the people gave their verdict: Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the one-time governor, declared persona-non-grata is now persona-grata again. President Buhari has won this referendum. The people of the State have sent a clear message. The politics of brinksmanship, assaults, insults, abuses and Robin Hoodism disguised as stomach infrastructure has been rejected in favour of politics of inclusion, development, responsibility and good governance.
“President Buhari’s war against corruption and insecurity; the message of agric revolution and infrastructure development and fidelity in resource allocation and management have struck a chord with Ekiti voters, who had been lied to and deceived by Governor Fayose. While the opposition continued to rant at him, President Buhari’s uprightness, coupled with incorruptibility and personal integrity, unmatched by any politician in the country has again stood the test of time.
“The All Progressives Congress (APC) win in Ekiti means that the Party has control over 25 out of the 36 states of the Federation. The party thus becomes the only one in power in the six states of the South-West geopolitical zone.
“Besides reinforcing the APC’s position as the only standing pole in the political landscape, it is a credit to the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, against whom all manner of ethnic and religious opposition is being mounted by former President Obasanjo and some of the Asiwaju’s sworn enemies in the sub-region.
“With this, the political landscape of the South-West has been transformed. APC’s regional strength has been strengthened and the Asiwaju will be respected even better. Without losing patience and decorum, the Asiwaju has proved that rivals must reconcile and come to terms or lose everything. This win is equally a huge boost to the APC and its new leadership under Chairman Adams Oshiomole, who got their first baptism of fire in Ekiti. It is, importantly, a big boost to the second term ambition of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“For the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which came second in the election in a state that they held sway, it is a loss politically and psychologically. The result of the election has proved that PDP is irreparably broken and dismantled. They have nothing to offer to the country and its people. The message from Ekiti is that no state in Nigeria will vote PDP. Never again.
“As for Mr. Fayose and his morbid brand of politics, it is now his time to reconcile himself to the imminent political extinction he faces, his political career sealed for good. Newspapers have mistaken him for a gadfly who creates discomfort for the government at the centre to make it better, but Fayose is a street-type thug. He never fits the role of a gadfly because he thrives on bitter enmity. Opposition does not mean a negative view of everything. Neither does it translate into a licence to abuse your superiors.
“The winner of the election, Governor Fayemi’s trajectory from a persona-non-grata to a persona-grata again has given a wave of cheer to APC members all over the country. It has given a fresh hope that fake news, lies and propaganda run only short distances, because they have short legs.
“An old proverb says you can’t beat something with nothing. After all the noise, theatricals and drama, Fayose’s fall came with a thud, not a bang: a high-powered nothing.”
