Ekiti Election was neither free nor fair - Deputy Governor

• Says Governor’s wife was almost harassed on the night before the election


• Security men arrested two of my brothers

By Ehi Ekhator, Naija Center News

Nigerians may forget the election that took place in Ekiti State on the 21 of June but not those who witness and felt short changed by INEC and Federal Government.

Though the executive governor of Ekiti State has openly conceded to defeat, he added a clause ”If it is the will of the people” to express his readiness to contest the result if discovered that the election was massively rigged as presently speculated.

The Ekiti Executive Council has accused The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of rigging the election through the ballot paper.

The State Deputy Governor, Prof. Modupe Adelabu who spoke with NAIJA CENTER NEWS (NCN), said that the election was neither free nor fair as members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, were ‘’intimidated and arrested’’ for nothing before and during the election.

The Deputy Governor also revealed that the wife of the state governor was almost harassed on her way home the night before the election.

The DG said ”Look, that election as far as i am concerned, wasn’t fair because two days before the election, most of our governors that were expected to come for our rally were not allowed to come in, they were intimidated, one of them was almost shot, that was enough to intimidate our people. On the day of the election, a lot of people were arrested even my own two brothers by security men, In all the polling boot, one PDP man would come out and point at APC member and they will arrest them.

‘’To tell you the truth, the governor did that so that there won’t be riot, so there won’t be problem and so that our people won’t be shot because our state was highly militarized. Moreover, what the governor said was that if indeed this is the vote of the people, he conceded defeat. And we know that somehow, it wasn’t the vote of the people, the governor can say yes but we have a party. The election was on a platform of a party.

‘’The wife of the governor was almost harassed on their way home the night before the election, so there was a lot of problem, in almost every poling boot, APC members and leaders were arrested and were kept there until after the election. We also had problem later with the ballot paper which I am not ready to say much about now. So on the surface, it looked free and fair, but we were intimidated, our party members were arrested, there was a lot of inducement. When there was gun shot in one of the poling boot, people were being arrested.

Responding to a question concerning the arrest of a member of the APC who was said to have been sharing money to voters, she said ‘’It is a lie, I wasn’t there when they were distributing money anyways, but it was PDP members that were distributing money. My two brothers were arrested and they freed them after the election and they couldn’t vote. As soon as they started arresting people, others ran away.

She also cleared the air while the state governor, Dr Fayemi decided to concede to defeat despite clear reasons to contest the result. Prof. Modupe revealed to NAIJA CENTER NEWS (NCN) that the governor too the decision in order to save the people of Ekiti State as there was a standby instruction to shoot anyone who would protest.

She said ‘’The governor saved the day, he did not want a situation where our people will go to the street and start to demonstrate, we knew that there was a circulation that anyone found demonstrating should be shot. A governor who performed, how could APC have lost all the 15 local government? It’s unprecedented.

The governor elect, Ayo Fayose had earlier accused Dr. Fayemi of conceding to defeat just for public sympathy. Responding to the accusation, the Deputy Governor said ‘’Governor Fayemi does not need sympathy, he is a gentleman, if you do something to save your people, is it for sympathy? He was just being decent and civilized. If he had said no, our people would have taken to the street. The military men were kept in Ekiti State for four days after the election thinking our people will protest and if there was riot; our people would have been shot.

Talking about the local government creation, the deputy governor said’’ I don’t know why he is complaining about the local government creation, if you look back, the committee had been set up more than six months ago, they ought to have submitted the report about a week before the election, but because of the campaign and the election process, we shifted the submission of their report. It’s not something we did yesterday or two days ago.

‘’But this government will be over in October and does this mean we have to fold our hands before we handover? We can still govern the state till then.

She also said she did not know if the governor ignored Fayose’s phone call as he alleged, adding that the man she knows, Dr. Fayemi, is decent and civilized and as such, will not do that.

She said ‘’Well I wouldn’t know that, maybe you should ask Dr. Fayemi because he is a decent and civilized person that he will not do that, I trust him.

 

Ekiti Election was neither free nor fair - Deputy Governor