The All Progressives Congress,
APC, Thursday, said it will challenge the results of last Saturday’s
governorship elections in Ekiti State in court.
In a communique, after the party’s
inaugural National Working Committee meeting held at the party’s National
Secretariat in Abuja and read by the party’s National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said; ” in order to prevent a recurrence of
what happened in Ekiti, especially the militarization of the process, the
harassment and intimidation of citizens, especially those in opposition, my
party has decided to challenge in court some of these constitutional breaches
and will also encourage our leaders and supporters, who were arrested, harassed
and intimidated to seek the enforcement of their constitutionally-guaranteed
fundamental rights that were recklessly abridged by the security agencies.”
He further stated that: “We believe
that the events leading to the D-Day in Ekiti negate the principles of a free,
fair and credible election. From the militarization of the election to the
police attack on our supporters, arrest and detention of our leaders across the
state and the use of huge funds to induce voters, the federal authorities
skewed everything in favour of the PDP.”
Governorship Candidate, All
Progressives Congress, APC, Dr Kayode Fayemi; with his wife, Erelu Bisi Fayemi,
on the verge of casting their votes at Ogilolo Ward, Isan-Ekiti… on Saturday.
Governorship Candidate, All
Progressives Congress, APC, Dr Kayode Fayemi; with his wife, Erelu Bisi Fayemi,
on the verge of casting their votes at Ogilolo Ward, Isan-Ekiti… on Saturday.
According to him: “With thousands of
armed troops, police, state security and civil defence personnel deployed to
Ekiti, the state was simply under a total lock down. While we believe that the
police and the civil defence indeed have a role to play in providing the necessary
security for the election, we do not see why soldiers and NDLEA
operatives who were armed to the teeth need to be deployed to a non-belligerent
situation like an election, especially at a time that their services were more
needed in the North Eastern part of Nigeria where over two hundred abducted
girls are still missing and where innocent Nigerians are being killed daily.”
He threw the following posers: “who
ordered the deployments of the troops and for what purpose? Who gave the orders
to stop Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State from reaching Ado-Ekiti, as the
Army captain who stopped and threatened to shoot him said he had orders from
above?”
He continued: “It is worth
mentioning that the physical prevention of Gov. Amaechi from joining his colleagues
at the final campaign rally of Gov. Fayemi in Ekiti is a direct function of the
unnecessary deployment of troops to Ekiti for the election. This event will go
down as the biggest affront to democracy in our country in recent times.
“Also worth mentioning is the
flagrant abuse of national institutions that led to the country’s aviation
authorities shutting down airports in Akure and elsewhere on the same day that
our party had its last campaign rally in Ado-Ekiti. This act of impunity was
targeted solely at the opposition, and it runs against global standards.
Airports are never shut without the issuance of a NOTAM - Notice to
Airmen.”
He asked: “Again, who gave the
orders for the closure of these airports?”
Mohammed further alleged that
without any reason, security personnel arrested APC leaders and
supporters across Ekiti and ferried them far away from where they could
vote or monitor the conduct of the election adding that this was an attestation
to the fact that the security operatives were in the state more for a sinister
motive than just to provide security for the election.
Said he: “In fact, the compromise by
the security operatives became more obvious when a so-called Special Task Force
comprising of Military, Police, SSS and NDLEA officers were summoned to a
meeting Friday afternoon – a day before the election, near the Tantaliser fast
food eatery at Ado-Ekiti.
No comments:
Post a Comment