Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti on Thursday engaged in a verbal war over an allegation of electoral violence raised by the PDP against Governor Kayode Fayemi.
While the PDP has accused Fayemi of plotting to unleash terror on the state for his party to win all the 26 House of Assembly seats in the March 9 poll, the governor has dismissed the allegations as spurious and ranting of a party expecting inevitable defeat.
At a press conference in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, the PDP’s state chairman, Gboyega Oguntuase, said many of his members were attacked in the state during the last presidential and National Assembly elections without the police arresting anyone.
But dismissing the allegation as false, Fayemi said the PDP was only giving flimsy excuses to prevent an inevitable defeat that awaits the party in the Saturday election.
Fayemi, who reacted through his Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode, described the allegation as mere ranting of a defeated party since the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), security agencies and the international community, had rated Ekiti the most peaceful state during the last elections.
Oguntuase added that it was shameful for the governor to be promoting a culture of violence in a state that was widely respected for education and civility and appealed to stakeholders across the country, especially Ekiti to plead with Fayemi to rethink his alleged sinister moves in the interest of the country.
“During the last elections, our members were attacked in Efon, Are, Ilawe, Ado, Ikere and other parts of the state. We even documented how our member’s buildings that were riddled with bullets, how some were flogged and handed over to the police, but no arrest was made.
“It was shameful for Ondo people to be raising an allegation of a crime against Fayemi because of how he has been influencing Governor Akeredolu to use violence to win the Assembly election.
“No election is worth the blood of any Ekiti man. The terror group they used to rig the presidential poll is still intact and we beg Governor Fayemi not to use Ekiti as a field to practise war the strategies he studied, instead let him go to war-torn Sudan or elsewhere to display this,” he said.
In his reaction, Fayemi said: “The international observers and security agencies adjudged Ekiti’s elections as the freest and fairest in the country.
“The police said no arrest was made and the PDP was just using escapist strategy ahead of its impending loss on Saturday. Not even a single gunshot was fired in Ekiti. Government and security put up a yeoman’s performance; if they could do that then, no cause for alarm.
“PDP will be defeated on Saturday under a peaceful manner because the people have seen the lies and deceit of the party and have seen Fayemi as their true friend and that is why the elections have gone the way of APC.
“The PDP was being haunted by its past misdeeds and that was why they were raising baseless allegations,” he stated.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti state command, Caleb Ikechukwu, said no arrest was made during the presidential and National Assembly elections because the polls were peaceful in the state.