Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State has described the general election conducted in the state as a charade, which defied all decent, civilised and acceptable approaches to democracy.
PDP Chairman, Gboyega Oguntuwase, said the presidential, National Assembly and House of Assembly elections in the state were characterised by violence, ballot-snatching, ballot stuffing and vote buying allegedly perpetrated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) members, to win all available legislative seats in the state.
Oguntuwase, who spoke in Ado Ekiti, yesterday, while reviewing the elections, said the party has “resolved not to allow the rape of democracy go unchallenged, hence, our resolve to approach the judiciary as the only democratic process available.
“We’ve given all our candidates in the national assembly elections the go-ahead to pursue the cases against the elections at the tribunal, because if the broad daylight robbery against democratic attitudes go unchallenged, it is going to consume the nation and our democratic norms and process.
“The general election in Ekiti State were bedevilled with violence, ballot snatching, threats to lives and properties, while the entire state was riddled with uncivilised attitude to politics,” he said.
The PDP chairman, who hinged the resolve to challenge the national assembly elections on the party’s “commitment to purifying the system,” however, did not disclose the team of lawyers being lined up by the party for the legal battle, ‘for tactical reasons’.
In his reaction, APC Publicity Secretary, Ade Ajayi, dismissed the allegations. He said: “It is an afterthought. The elections in Ekiti were held under peaceful atmosphere. Ekiti people went to the polls without rancour or violence.”
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has pledged neutrality and fairness in the conduct of the supplementary election for Ekiti East constituency 1 of the state.
INEC said the election will hold on Saturday in five polling units in the constituency, in line with the directive of the chairman of the electoral body, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu.
The election was suspended by INEC on March 9, when the House of Assembly and governorship elections were held across the country, with results in other 25 constituencies already declared.