Sam Nwaoko writes on the recent governorship election in Ekiti State, the contentions of some of the political parties and the aftermath of the keenly contested poll.
THE outcome of the July 14th governorship election in Ekiti State has thrown up several issues that have formed the bases for discussions among the people of the state and beyond. The election has basically been viewed from different perspectives by the various concerned stakeholders across the 16 local government areas of the state.
Expectedly, the members, loyalists and supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party that was adjudged winners in the election, have hailed it to high heavens and declared it as about “the best election in the country so far.” Not a few callers into various radio programmes to celebrate the victory of their political party in the election held this opinion, and even contended that the election was better than any they had witnessed or heard about anywhere.
However, some of the APC loyalists admitted that there were “some issues here and there in a few of the polling units in some of the local government areas, especially as created by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is still in power in the state, but that is not enough to dismiss the entire election process as flawed.”
By their contentions, the Ekiti APC apologists accuse the PDP of whatever flaws noticed in the election and even made reference to the experience in the state, in 2014, when the election that brought the government of Governor Ayodele Fayose was held. To them, “the election of June 21, 2014 was much worse than whatever people are complaining about on the July 14th, 2018.”
Driving home this point, the APC even highlighted the allegations of vote-buying, which the party said was what the PDP did a few days to the election, and even on the Election Day.
The publicity secretary of the APC in the state, Chief Taiwo Olatunbosun, while reacting to the accusations of vote-buying by the APC, said the party knew that it was illegal and that the party could not have engaged in any such illegality. Rather, Olatunbosun said it was the PDP that allegedly paid people for votes in the election.
The APC spokesman explained that he could “vouch that APC never got itself involved in vote-buying; rather, the party gave some stipends to its agents legitimately as honorarium for their services.”
Olatunbosun said: “The act of buying votes with the state resources and transacting through the accounts of government at a time when arrears of salaries are not paid is a serious crime, which Fayose and Professor Olusola (Eleka) have committed and which deserves condemnation by all well-meaning people of the state.
“We are also aware that some of them were nabbed by the security operatives.
“We condemn this illegal act, and we declare that we were never part of this act. We are also demanding that the full weight of the law be brought down upon those who perpetrated the act.”
The APC condemned the practice of vote-buying, saying “such practice should be discouraged to allow democracy grow.”
But what served as PDP’s initial response to the contentions by the APC had come about 48 hours to the election. As a precursor to what might be the thoughts of PDP on the conduct of the election, the party had raised the alarm more than once in what it alleged were steps by both INEC and the various security agencies to prepare grounds for unfree and unfair contest.
On Thursday July 12, some 48 hours before the election, hundreds of PDP members, dressed in white, had responded to a call By Governor Ayo Fayose, and converged on the pavilion at the government house grounds in Fajuyi Park. They said they were there to pray in thanksgiving to God for giving them victory preparatory to the election, “as directed by God.”
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But they were forcibly dispersed by a detachment of armed policemen and sundry security agents, who had laid siege on the pavilion. Apart from shooting to disperse the convergence of the PDP faithful, they had also shot tear gas to chase them away in different directions. Those of them that ran into the Government House were not spared, as they were also chased with tear gas. In reaction to this, Governor Fayose, who was said to have come out in reaction to the shooting of tear gas into the Government House, was said to have been manhandled by the policemen, an action to the alleged neck injury for which he has been wearing a brace.
Thus, it was not a surprise when the PDP rejected the result of the election announced by INEC outright and promptly said it would challenge it at the tribunal.
In his initial reaction, publicity secretary of the PDP in the state, Mr. Jackson Adebayo, lamented what he said was “massive vote buying,” claiming that “this was the case not just in the PDP strongholds, but in all the areas where where we lost the election.”
The chairman of the PDP in the state, Chief Gboyega Oguntuwase, while elaborating more on why his party rejected the election, said the entire process was “a charade and a shame to all democrats.” Oguntuwase, who addressed newsmen, said the governorship poll was “an embarrassment to democrats across the globe”, claiming that “APC governors from some states in the country were personally present in the state to monitor the election in the areas that had been assigned to them to spend money and influence the election.”
Oguntuwase said: “It was a trans-state conspiracy. Governors who came to Ekiti personally to supervise areas assigned to them in the state and spend money to buy votes. They brought over N11 billion, money meant for the development of their states.
“This election was far from being free, fair and credible. In Ilejemeje, Ilawe, Ikole, Ise/Orun, Oye, Ado and other major towns in Ekiti, many of our people were beaten up by APC thugs who were aided by the security men.
“As we speak, the results declared by INEC to give victory to Fayemi was more than the number of accredited voters. So, where did they get the additional votes they added? We are going to use every constitutional means to retrieve this stolen mandate; it is just a matter of time.
“APC mobilised over N11 billion to buy votes in Ekiti. They came here to perpetrate electoral perfidy and such will not stand. We shall regain our mandate by legal means. We shall soon resolve on the court case. The declaration of Dr Kayode Fayemi as the winner of the election is poll robbery. The facts will speak for themselves.”
He also lamented the deployment of 30,000 policemen in the state for the election, saying said: “What did they need 30,000 police officers for in Ekiti when criminals were killing Nigerians in other states? Ekiti people knew they were in our state for a task and not to protect their votes and that was why there was no jubilation or ceremony anywhere in the state after the election.”
On the widespread allegation that the two major political parties bought votes and induced voters, Oguntuwase said his party and its government, which was focused on how to raise funds to pay salaries could not have been a party to vote-buying. “Where are we going to get that kind of money from?” He explained that the state government, the governor and the candidate of his party were loved by the people and “did not in any way need any form of our inducement to vote for us. We have the people behind us and we relied on their massive goodwill.”
The aftermath?
The governor-elect, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has received the certificate of return from the electoral umpire, a development that formally signalled the end of the governorship election processes in Ekiti State. With this, the people of the state and beyond are now on the lookout for what would become of Ekiti in the coming months.
Part of the things already on the table is the expected setting-up of an election petition tribunal, which the PDP has said it would take its grievance to. Professor Kolapo Olubunmi Olusola told newsmen that he and his party had rejected the results as announced by the INEC, and claimed that he won about 70 per cent of the votes cast on the Election Day. He was emphatic in his submission thus: “I therefore reject the falsified results being bandied by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which purportedly gave the election to the All Progressives Congress and its candidate, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi.” He said it was “the most audacious electoral robbery of our recent history. It shall not stand. By the grace of Almighty God and your support, I will pursue and regain my mandate.”
Professor Olusola added: “The APC leveraged on its well-advertised but patently obnoxious and anti-democratic “federal might” to intimidate, harass, victimize, oppress, and brutalize PDP leaders, members, and the voting public all over Ekiti.
“INEC on its own part reneged on its promise to have results counted, declared, and pasted on the wall of each polling station. There was nowhere INEC transmitted results from the polling centres as earlier promised. Ballot boxes were illegally moved to INEC offices while our agents were disallowed from following the process.”
One other noticeable thing in the aftermath of the election is the tension at the various motor parks in the state, especially the state capital. The announcement of the results signalled the attempt to implement the immediate take over of leadership by the drivers unions. For instance, members of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) loyal to the APC made a public service announcement on a radio station in the state, warning people not to have dealings with the current leadership of the association in the state.
The announcement said rather, the people should refer to a caretaker chairman, Mr. Rotimi Olanbiwonnu, more popularly known as “Mentillo,” who is known to be a loyalist of APC and who was the chairman of the transport association when Dr Fayemi governed the state between 2010 and 2014.
Thus, changes are already creeping in on the state body-politic and the atmosphere is tuning to the body language of the governor-elect.
One other post-election activity of note is the long adjournment announced by the Ekiti State House of Assembly. The Assmbly members sat on Tuesday after the election and, apart from denouncing the conduct of the polls, also rejected its outcome. But the Assembly, at the plenary, curiously cited security fears and adjourned till October 8th, 2018, eight days away from the inauguration of a new government in the state.
The leader of business in the assembly, Hon. Akinyele Olatunji, who spoke at the House plenary in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, July 17, claimed that the process leading to the election and its final result were “improper” and “unfortunate.”
After their debate, the PDP-dominated House proposed an adjournment of their sittings for about three months to resume on October 8th, 2018. Olatunji, who had moved the motion for the adjournment, said the long adjournment became “imperative due to the political harassment of members by security agents.”
The motion was unanimously approved by other members present at the plenary and the adjournment till October was effected.
But three of the members of the House, who had earlier defected from the PDP to the APC, kicked and called it an illegal action. Speaking on behalf of the three members namely: Gboyega Aribisogan (Ikole I); Mr, Sunday Akinniyi (Ikere I) and Mr. Adeniran Alagbada (Ise/Orun Constituency), Aribisogan described the long adjournment as “illegal and not in the interest of the people of the state who elected them.”
The APC Assembly members alleged that the long adjournment was masterminded by Governor Fayose, claiming that it was “in a bid to emasculate the legislative arm.”
To observers of political activities in the state, the Ekiti State House of Assembly might be the next political battleground in the state, and their belief is that this might be going simultaneously with the election petition tribunal.
What political parties other than APC, PDP see
Th Social Democratic Party (SDP) said it had to withdraw from the Ekiti governorship election at the eleventh hour. The spokesperson for the party, Mr Yemi Akinbode, who doubles as the director of media of the Akin Aiyegbusi Campaign Organisation of the SDP simply said: “We didn’t participate in the election, not that we stepped down for anyone but we just didn’t participate in the election.”
Asked why, Oyebode said: “The truth of the matter is that we saw that the election was highly monetised. Two to three days to the election, we saw and knew that the election would be highly monetised by the two leading political parties and, of course, we know that this is against our principle as a political party.
“The beauty of democracy is to allow the people to freely decide who they want to govern them. To us, that process was not what we bargained for, because it became worrisome and was a total deviation from the laid-down principle of democracy.
“We discovered that we could not play that kind of game and at that point, we stepped down all our machinery. On the day of the election, we did not have our people on the ground because we felt that what was going on was against the principle of democracy and our idea of election. So, basically we did not participate in the election.”
ANRP’s Reverend Tunde Afe
The candidate of Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) and Senior Pastor of House of Faith Christian Centre, Ado Ekiti, Reverend Tunde Afe, said “the election went on peacefully, we thank God for that. But much more than the election going on peacefully is the fact that there was massive vote-buying by the two major political parties.
“I witnessed this first-hand in my village, where the security operatives attached to me arrested some people. The person was arrested in front of my house with envelopes that contained cash, which they were giving to voters. This was in front of my home at Itapaji-Ekiti in Ikole Local Government Area of the state. So, if PDP is accusing APC of buying votes and the like, PDP equally did that. We saw both parties engage in that.”
Labour Party
Candidate of the Labour Party, Dr. Sikiru Tae Lawal also decried the election on the grounds of inducement, harassment and intimidation, saying: “That election didn’t meet international standard at all. There were cases of open purchase of votes and negotiation over how much to pay, even in the presence of security agencies.
“In my ward at Oke Ese in Ado-Ekiti, precisely ward 009, some party thugs aided by security agencies invaded that ward and destroyed all the units they suspected were not in favour of APC. They even took a ballot box away and later returned it; that was how compromised the election was.
“I got calls from LP agents in many wards where they were either chased away from the polling units or prevented from monitoring the collation process and sad enough, security agents and INEC officials kept mute. But whatever we do, we must think of Ekiti. Before I plunged into the race, I told Ekiti after emerging the consensus candidate of Labour Party that that election was not a do-or-die.”
Shape of things to come?
The emerging political configurations in the state are not clear to anyone yet. The positions by the political parties sampled did not indicate if there are plans by the opposition political parties in the state to come together to form a common front.
As things stand, a look at the post-election bickering shows that only the PDP is warming up for a showdown. While the party has said it would retrieve its allegedly stolen mandate from the APC, only a few are optimistic that this dream could come to fruition, with the pessimists citing “the vice-grip strength being exhibited by the APC at all levels as 2019 draws near.” They said the Ekiti election was a precursor of what the 2019 general election would look like.
However, some others have claimed that the “PDP only wants to use its tribunal matter to keep the party together ahead of the 2019 elections.” Those in this school of thought contend that “without this, the party members would be rudderless, because as we speak, there’s only one known leader still standing in the party today, apart from Senator Biodun Olujimi, and that is Ayo Fayose.”
Are the parties waiting to be wooed either by the winners of the Ekiti election or the recent alliance? Are they themselves already forming an alliance in the aftermath of the bitter governorship battle? The coming weeks will show the new direction for Ekiti.
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