The All Progressive Congress, APC, has expressed misgivings about last Saturday’s gubernatorial election held in Ekiti State, saying it was skewed by the presidency in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
In a communique issued at the end of the inaugural meeting of its National Working Committee, NWC, on Thursday, the party said while the events of the voting day itself may have led many to believe that the election was free and fair, the same cannot be said of the events before, during and after the election.
The APC said from the militarization of the election to the police attack on its supporters, arrest and detention of the party’s leaders across the state and the use of huge funds to induce voters, the federal authorities skewed everything in favour of the PDP.
“On the eve of the election and on election day, without any reason, security personnel arrested APC leaders and supporters across Ekiti, ferrying them far away from where they could vote or monitor the conduct of the election. This is 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,” the party said.
Citing an instance, the APC said the experience of Bimbo Daramola, the campaign manager of Governor Kayode Fayemi, was particularly traumatic and saddening, as his fiancee and aged father were harassed by armed soldiers who invaded his country home in the middle of the night, pointing guns at them.
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It said Daramola himself, who is a member of the House of Representatives, was harassed and taken to an unknown place by soldiers.
The party also alleged that some accredited journalists were “deported” to neighbouring Kwara State by paid agents of state who turned themselves to enforcers for the ruling PDP.
It noted that “while our leaders and supporters were being hounded and arrested across Ekiti during and after the voting, some PDP ministers and PDP stalwarts were moving around freely, with armed escort, even with a restriction on movement in place. What business did these Ministers and their cohorts have in Ekiti during the election? What was their role in the election?”
The party leaders, however, congratulated governor Fayemi, for his rare show of sportsmanship by conceding defeat and congratulating the announced winner of the election, Ayodele Fayose.