How APC rigged Ekiti LG poll —Oguntuwase, PDP chair

The Ekiti State government recently conducted the local government election in which the All Progressives Congress (APC) cleared all available chairmanship and councillorship seats. What is your assessment of the exercise?

From the beginning, we had told them that the calibre of people and the background of a few of them at the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) will not allow for a free and fair election. The story of malpractices is all over the state. And another thing they did was to make sure that the materials were not brought to all the polling units. They were not brought to majority of the polling units. The APC nearly carried them to unknown destinations and they brought them back haven thumb printed the ballot papers. With all these, Fayemi and his people have mocked democracy and they have mocked the entire state. They have also wasted hundreds of millions of naira that were used for that election. Why do you have to waste the people’s money when you know where you are going? Why do you even have to call for an election, when all you wanted to create will be like people you have chosen? You could have set up a caretaker committee for all the local government areas. It is unfortunate that democracy, in the eyes of the APC, is not representative of what democracy should be universal. The whole process of the election was faulty.

Are you saying the PDP was robbed?

Yes, through the ungodly association of the SIEC and the government. The most unfortunate of their robbery was the violence that marred what they called an election. One person was killed; others were brutalised and intimidated. What other evidence do you need, when even a dead body is on the ground? I mean nobody would have killed himself just to show that the opposition killed him. And three to four people were wounded; funny enough, the man who did the shooting can be identified, and he was in the company of a popular politician in Ikere-Ekiti. When you put an individual in a position that he does not qualify for, all he owes you is absolute commitment and loss of integrity and neutrality. Again there was another person that we told them a competent court of jurisdiction had said he is a card-carrying member of the APC and despite that, they still put him there. So, all these people were assembled in SIEC to do the exact thing they have done, pervert the truth, call black white and make sure Ekiti people are deprived of the right to pick a leader for themselves. Look at the 2019 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar won that election but we are decent people despite the decision of the Supreme Court to award their decision in favour of President Muhammadu Buhari. We know that the judiciary is under siege; we know that this season, if you are not a judge that is committed to God and humanity, it will be a difficult thing for you to speak the truth, more so that you know, these people can even invade the court in session .So, any judge who is still in service today, we must praise him or her because they are doing it at the risk of their lives.

But the APC said your party was no longer popular hence the rejection at the poll?

I don’t know what popularity means! If popularity means acceptability, then, what they have said is incorrect and it is a criminal representation of fact. If there is any group of people that is not popular in Nigeria, particularly in Ekiti State, it is the APC. Who will say a government with Nigerians experiencing banditry, kidnapping and terrorism is popular?  A party that could not pay university lecturers; that has almost killed our university system, will you say such a party is popular? Who will say a party that has its national chairman always at a running battle with his state governor as popular? Who will say a party that is universally being condemned as organising the ugliest election in history is popular?

There have been calls and suggestions for the amendment of the constitution so that the Independent National electoral Commission (INEC) will be empowered to conduct  local government elections at the state level. Looking at your concerns on the recent local council poll in Ekiti, will you support the suggestion? 

That suggestion would have been good if the INEC itself is morally upright, has integrity and is reputable in its discharge of duty and responsibilities. They are more criminal now than even states electoral umpire. They only embark on inconclusive elections and manipulate elections for their paymasters.  You saw what happened in Kogi and Bayelsa states.

Governor Kayode Fayemi has been in office now for a year and about three months. What are those areas you think his government has done something different and significant than the previous PDP state administration? 

Anybody who gives the government a pass mark is deceiving them. If somebody is not a paid agent, you know that giving Fayemi a pass mark would be the most unreasonable thing to do. A governor, who doesn’t stay at home; who is  always on trips outside the state; a governor under whose watch kidnappers are operating at will; a governor under whose watch herdsmen are capturing our lands and even hoisting their flags in places near the local government of the governor! If he cannot protect his home town, who is safe?  When you look at what has happened in the Ekiti State University today, he has sacked more than 1,000 people. Where are those people going? They are going back home as a father or mother who cannot feed their homes because they have taken their money away from them. The source of their income, he has put an end to it. A governor who could not pay monthly subventions regularly to the university, he has killed that university. So as far as I am concerned, Fayemi has scored below a reasonable mark in Ekiti. Up till now, the international market that was constructed by Fayose in Ado-Ekiti, he has refused to complete it because he does not want to give the PDP that credit. So, where has he scored a good mark? Nowhere! This is a man that is inaccessible; people wanted to give him advice, they cannot because they can›t access the governor. In his party, he has caused more bad than good. Look at the way he has indiscreetly and cleverly alienated strong  members of his party like Femi Ojudu and like former Governor Segun Oni. This has particularly shown that this man has failed. He has failed his own party and he has failed the Ekiti people. Nevertheless, it is good to accord him one pass mark, that is, he is still looking very handsome and robust.

What is the way forward for your party after this local government election?

There is re-enactment and rejuvenation in the PDP now. People like Senator Biodun Olujimi, former Senator Duro Faseyi and other leaders are coming out forcefully to fund the party so that we leave where we are now to where God has promised us; green pastures. The party will be back stronger in the state for the task of dislodging the ruling APC in future elections.