Follow Us on Google
From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
The candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the just concluded governorship election in Ekiti State, Amb. Dare Bejide, has rejected the outcome of the poll and described the exercise as a sad day for democracy.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the incumbent Governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Biodun Oyebanji, as the winner of the Saturday election.
Oyebanji had polled 319,224 votes to defeat the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Wole Oluyede, who scored 40,543 votes, and ADC’s Bejide who obtained 12,872 votes.
Bejide made this known while reacting to the outcome of the poll during a press conference with newsmen in Ado-Ekiti, where he alleged that the process was not free, fair and credible, lamenting that the exercise lacked the core principles of democracy in every sense of it.
The candidate who claimed that the atmosphere in his polling unit and some other polling units across the state depicted what he called a war zone, alleged that political appointees and serving senators deployed thugs, fake and genuine police officers, bags of money to polling units during the election.
According to him, the exercise was characterised by vote-buying, over-voting, alterations, among other electoral irregularities, which he said raised concerns about the state of the nation’s democracy.
“My immediate reaction is to reject the result in its entirety because, in my view, the exercise conducted on Saturday was not credible. You all witnessed what happened, particularly in some polling units, including mine, where the atmosphere was almost like a war zone.
“Political appointees, alongside a serving senator, allegedly brought in thugs as well as both fake and genuine policemen. It appeared as though the election was taking place only in my polling unit. It is a sad day for democracy.
“Vote-buying was carried out openly. Bags of money were brought to polling units, and from what we observed, enormous sums were spent. To me, this reflects a failure on the part of the government. If they had performed well, there would have been no need to rely on money to influence voters. They should have depended on their achievements to win the election rather than openly buying votes.
“We drew the attention of security personnel to what was happening, yet no meaningful action was taken. That is quite unfortunate and raises serious concerns about the state of our democracy.”
He explained that the party will decide the next step to take after it has carefully studied and completed collation of results across polling units.
“As for our next line of action, I have not personally seen the full results yet; I have only heard reports on social media. We are currently collating the results available to us. Once we receive and analyse all the polling unit results, we will brief our party members and decide on the appropriate course of action. At this stage, we are certainly not satisfied with the conduct of the election.
“Our agents collected copies of the results at the state collation centre, but we are still gathering polling unit results. From the few we have reviewed, we have observed cases of over-voting, alterations and other irregularities. A lot of disturbing things occurred during the process. When our analysis is completed, we will determine the next steps.”
Responding to reports about the olive branch extended to him by Governor Oyebanji, he said,
“Yes, Governor Biodun Oyebanji called me today. He said he wanted to visit. I told him I was occupied at the time and asked if we could speak later. He said he would call back. He is my brother and not a stranger to me. In fact, he began his political journey from this house in 1996. So, whenever he comes, I will listen to what he has to say.”
The candidate appealed to his supporters to remain calm, insisting that the results announced did not reflect the reality on ground, as the party vigorously campaigned before the election.
“My message to our supporters is simple: remain calm because it is not over yet. The result that has been announced does not, in our view, reflect what actually transpired. We worked extremely hard during this campaign. We travelled across the state, visited artisans, market women, pensioners and communities and many others. Everywhere we went, people expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the government and indicated their support for our cause.
“That is why we believe the outcome announced does not reflect the reality on the ground. You can see that there is no jubilation anywhere. The mood across the state is one of sadness because many people feel something has gone terribly wrong.
“Some people said before the election that the ADC had no structure and no pathway to victory. My response is simple: if we were not a force to reckon with, why was there such widespread vote-buying? If they were confident in their popularity and achievements, they should have allowed democracy to take its natural course and defeated us at the ballot box.
“We campaigned vigorously. We went from house to house, met artisans, barbers, traders, market women and church congregations among others.We presented our vision and offered what we believed was a better alternative for Ekiti State. While we were engaging directly with the people, others appeared confident that the resources they had amassed would be enough to influence the outcome on election day.
“It is very sad that money meant for roads, water, infrastructure and development was allegedly deployed to buy votes and compromise the conscience of the people.
“My appeal to Ekiti people and our supporters is to remain peaceful and calm. We are carefully studying the results. Once that process is completed, we will know the appropriate steps to take. For now, I urge everyone to be patient and law-abiding.”
