Ekiti bye-election violence: YPP condems killings, alleges vote buying triggered violence

From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti

The party, in a statement on Sunday by its publicity secretary, Owoola Daramola, titled: ‘Reaction of Ekiti YPP on the violence that greeted Ekiti East Constituency one bye-election’ said : “It is with utmost regret that we, the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in Ekiti State make this statement, in reaction to the violence that greeted the bye-election into the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Ekiti East constituency 1.”

The statement read :

The election which took place on Saturday March 20, 2021 was disrupted in ward seven unit seven Omuo-Ekiti by armed political thugs

Having noticed that the YPP Candidate was leading in the election, the APC and PDP wanted to maneuver this and they resulted to vote buying, by sharing two thousand naira and one thousand five hundred respectively to each voter, which eventually led to violence.

The philosophy of our party is against vote buying, we reject and condemn it in totality, our party members reported to the security agents, only for the leaders in both parties to order their thugs to start unleashing attacks on voters who didn’t do their bidding.

The thugs shot sporadically, which led to the shooting a Police Officer on election duty, while many others sustained various degrees of injuries.

All these happened in the presence of security agencies monitoring the election and they did not take any cogent action. They compromised in the discharge of their duties.

Before the poll, the Commissioner of Police in Ekiti State promised adequate security of lives and properties during and after the election, however, the reverse was the case. This empty promises can not make us have confidence in our Security Operatives, as they just make pledge without backing it up with actions.

The APC-led government has failed Nigerians, they don’t have any achievement they can use to campaign to the people, they want power by all means. The electorate wanted to show them that they have failed through their PVCs, APC should not result to violence because of this. They should accept their failure and make amendments, rather than resulting to violence to force themselves on Nigerians.

Democracy is no longer thriving under the watch of APC administration. Electorate cannot exercise their franchise freely, this is shameful and should be condemned.

We are telling APC that it will no longer be business as usual on vote buying in the country, the era of money politics is gradually going into extinction. This is what YPP stands for, enough of buying of voters’ conscience.

The rejection of their money has shown that people are resolute to reshape their future. This is a signal that the 2022 governorship election in Ekiti state and the 2023 general elections will be a clear departure from what it used to be.

There is no doubt that YPP has come to stay in Nigeria, the youths are battle ready to make ballot revolution which the party is preaching.

We commend the INEC for suspending the election due to the crisis. However we are pleading with them not to allow themselves to be used by APC to upturn the poll whenever it will be conducted again.

We condoned with the families of those who lost their lives in the unfortunate incident and pray God to grant them eternal rest as well as the fortitude for the families to bear the irreparable loss.

We urge YPP members in Ekiti East constituency 1 and Ekiti State in general to remain calm and not to be deterred by the recent development.