- PDP candidate commends massive turnout of voters
By Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, on Saturday accused the security agencies of compromising the governorship election.
Addressing newsmen shortly after casting his vote at exactly 1:20pm, at his Unit 001, Afao Ekiti, his country home, the governor alleged that policemen aided and abetted open distribution of money and ballot snatching.
He praised Ekiti voters for turning out massively and for conducting themselves peacefully.
Fayose alleged that policemen were reported to be supervising ballot snatching as well as providing cover for those engaged in the distribution of money on the election day.
According to him, all attempts to personally report the alleged incidents to police high authorities were rebuffed.
Fayose claimed that most of the observers that came to monitor the poll in different parts of the state got wind of the attacks, but that there was nothing they could do to stop the situation.
The governor declared that the candidate of PDP, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, would still win the poll despite all odds.
He said information at his disposal revealed that INEC seemed to have good intention about the election, but expressed regrets that policemen thwarted such efforts.
“I want to state expressly that police have hijacked the whole process, INEC might mean well but the process was tampered with by the police
“As I speak, thugs are having a field day snatching ballot boxes under police watch, this is a national disgrace
“There were cases of not only ballot snatching, but ballot cleansing and clearing, as the police and other officers cooperated by looking the other way.
“In all the Local Governments, chieftains of my party are also being arrested indiscriminately and bundled into detention this morning for no just cause, and the list include my Chief of Staff, PDP Senators, Reps among others
“The situation was so bad that people distributing money to secure votes were doing so while sitting side by side with policemen”, the governor said.
PDP candidate Prof. Olusola, eventually voted after the card reader failed to read his Permanent Voter Card twice.
Olusola was manually accredited for the election before voting at his ward at Odo Iro unit in his Ikere Ekiti countryhome.
The staff of INEC allowed him to vote manually. Olusola’s wife’s PVC could also not be verified by the card reader.
Commenting on the election process, the Deputy Governor, described the process of election as credible as at the time of voting, urging the security to maintain the tempo to protect the credibility of the poll.
