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From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in last Saturday’s governorship election in Ekiti State, Dr Wole Oluyede, has expressed regret over the outcome of the poll, saying the exercise lacked vital ingredients, including fairness, transparency, and credibility, and was flawed by electoral irregularities.
The PDP candidate, however, thanked the people of the state who, according to him, legitimately voted for him in the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Returning Officer, Prof. Adenike Oladiji, declared the incumbent Governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Biodun Oyebanji, who polled 319,224 votes, as the winner of the election.
Oluyede scored 40,543 votes, while the candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Amb. Dare Bejide, garnered 12,872 votes.
Oluyede made this known at a post-election press conference in Ado-Ekiti, where he alleged widespread vote-buying and other electoral irregularities during the poll. He also accused security agents of neglecting their primary responsibility of ensuring law and order, and of supporting the ruling government against opposition supporters.
“I am not satisfied with the conduct of the election. There were a lot of irregularities in the way it went. The elections involved a lot of irregularities from INEC officials. There was a lot of intimidation of voters by security forces, the police officers.
“There was a lot of negligence by people who were supposed to keep law and order. There was a lot of vote-buying; that was evident. There were allegations that BVAS machines didn’t work the way they were supposed to work or were neglected and ballot papers were passed round.
“There were a lot of issues about ballot papers not being verified by BVAS or connected to BVAS. There were a lot of those things. There is actually video evidence of so many things that happened.
“The security forces were not a force of keeping peace. It was definitely clear to everybody that there was a bias towards supporting the government and harassing the opposition supporters. So, all those things are there.”
Appreciating those who voted for him in the election, Oluyede said:
“I think I had 40,000 plus people who legitimately voted for me without taking a cover. I am very, very proud of them. I am immensely proud of those who stood against all intimidation, against all harassment, and made a sacrifice to say we want democracy without having to sell their votes.
“Those are the people I am very proud of. And they will be the ones that will give me hope that democracy can still thrive. And those are the people that will keep me in politics.
“So, I am not leaving politics. I am here. I am still going to be part of the process. I am not going away.
“And I will keep on subjecting our democracy to test every time. And I hope one day we will have an election that will actually make us feel proud of ourselves, that we are Nigerian citizens.”
Disclosing that he will subject the results of the election to experts and legal review, the PDP candidate said:
“But the process that we are on right now is really to review the elections. Though, elections are meant to be won and lost. This is not my first time of running for election.
“And this time it is different. My main interest today really is, first of all, to thank the Ekiti people. I went around the state, they received me.
“One thing that was very obvious was that they were yearning for change. They wanted change. They came out. They supported me. And they really wanted to vote. The elections went in different ways.
“There were some that probably sold their votes. Because that is the way they think elections should go. That is their expectations from elections.
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“And it is really clear that they have been impoverished. They will take anything. And they actually assume that that is the only thing they are going to get for the next four years.
“So, who will bring them in to sell their votes? That played a role. Then there were those that were intimidated, that really wanted to vote, that the ruling party and their agents harassed, they assaulted them by backing them up, and stopping them from exercising their franchise. Those were their evidence of shame.
“Some were just handing ballot papers to people to vote. There are other cases, and there is video evidence of that, of people actually sharing money, and wearing APC logos on the day of elections, which is against the law.
“And they were openly sharing money, and they are on record. And there were places where people were sharing and giving out voters’ cards on the day of the elections to be used. My interest, really, at this moment, is not really to do anything except to subject all of this evidence that we have into a process by experts to really advise us on how to maintain the sanctity of our elections, just for the sake of all of us.
“The reality of it is that this should not be about me, or about Mr. Biodun Oyebanji. It shouldn’t be about us, about the two major contestants. But it should be about Ekiti.
“It should be about Nigeria. How are we going to maintain democracy? Is this our interpretation of democracy? And how can we improve things? How can we change things? That would be my interest. I have always said that I am not desperate, and everybody knows that I am not really desperate for the office.
“But I ran for the office, fair and square. I made sure that all the rules and regulations as stated by INEC, and by every electoral law were followed on my side. So if I lost fairly based on that, I would be fine with it.
“Like I said, it is not the first time I have done it. But if there is a brazen negligence or brazen neglect of those laws and expressions of misconduct, and we want to accept that as elections, then Nigeria has a problem. And despite the fact that Ekiti seems to have moved on from it now because we are used to using intimidation and violence as part of elections, then we should be thinking about what happens in other states, what happens in the general elections. That would be my interest.
“My primary interest is really to subject this to expert review, possibly legal review. I have not made up my mind on what I am going to do with all the evidence I am going to gather, but I am going to spend money and time and invest in reviewing these elections.
“I am not just going to walk away. It actually would be unfair on the Ekiti populace for me to walk away. But I will subject it to review.”
He remarked that the review might also help Oyebanji to verify whether he actually won the election.
“And the review might even help Mr. Oyebanji as a winner, it would be really good to verify that he is the winner in a fair manner. And that would help him to legitimise himself as the next governor of Ekiti State. In that manner, I would want him to have a fair chance of being a legitimate governor, without any doubt, anywhere.
“So it is not about me struggling to say let us destroy or remove or change anything. No, it is just to sanctify what we have done as true citizens of Ekiti State.”
On why he is supporting President Bola Tinubu and also throwing his weight behind Tinubu’s second term ambition, Oluyede said:
“I still believe that President Bola Tinubu is still the best person to rule Nigeria. No other presidential candidate has approached me and given me a reason to change my mind.
“Maybe if that happens, I am going to tell you, I am going to be very objective. I am not one of those people who suck up to anybody.
“In actual fact, I don’t know how to suck up to anybody. I am a very, very objective person. And my decision to support him is objective.
“If by any reason I have a doubt that he is not doing enough, I will tell him privately. I will reach out to him. I will work out to help him be the best president for Nigeria.
“But as of now, as I said, it is not because of any personal interest that I am supporting President Bola Tinubu. I am supporting him because I believe in the best interest of Nigeria he is still the best person to rule Nigeria.”
