The candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Engr Segun Oni has rejected the victory of the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, Mr Biodun Oyebanji in the last Saturday Ekiti governorship election.
His campaign organization has also accused INEC of complicity in the election because “because the arrangement of the polling booth and the ballot boxes was awkward.”
In the final result released by the Independent Electoral Commission`s (INEC) Returning Officer, Professor Kayode Adebowale, the APC candidate beat other 17 candidates to emerge the overall winner.
The APC flagbearer, Mr Biodun Oyebanji was declared victorious in the election with 187,057 as against Engr Segun Oni`s 82,211 votes. The People`s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate came third with 67,457 in the election.
Following this final result declaration, the Segun Oni Campaign Organisaton, on Sunday, rejected the outcome describing it as “unacceptable”.
In a statement by the campaign organization, the SDP candidate says the result is unacceptable by the party “because it is a travesty of democracy, it is a rape on democracy and clear daylight robbery”.
This SDP position was disclosed by the spokesman of the Segun Oni Campaign Organization, Mr Moses Jolayemi, in a chat with Vanguard. He alleged that victory of the ruling party was secured through vote buying and the compromising of security agents during the election.
He says the party has video evidence of switching of ballot boxes by thugs working for the ruling APC, while the security agents “looked the other way.”
He said that “It (the election) was not free of violence anyway because the third thing they did, was to make use of their thugs.
“We have videos of some of their thugs snatching ballot boxes. What did the security agents do, they looked the other way.” He alleged.
The campaign organisation spokesperson also accused INEC of complicity in the alleged irregularity saying:
“INEC is also culpable because the arrangement of the polling booth and the ballot boxes was awkward. You wonder why this should be so. The election may appear free nut it was not fair.
On whether Engr Oni and his party will be challenging the final result at the election tribunal, the spokesperson said that a decision is yet to be made on that, but will be made “in the next few hours”.
He said: “The decision will be taken in the next few hours. We are going to meet but the central message here is that this election is rejected. Segun Oni is not accepting the results, he is not conceding and he is not congratulating anybody because this is not an election”
NOTABLE QUOTES
Clariform has obtained the Vanguard with Jolayemi, where he made the following comments:
“The outcome is unacceptable by us as a party because it is a travesty of democracy, it is a rape on democracy and clear daylight robbery, the APC has taken advantage of the peoples’ pathetic state of poverty and that is why you see that the APC refused to campaign. They were not going round doing rallies; we were the ones campaigning because they knew what they wanted to do.
“Their strategy was simple: buy these peoples’ votes and that is why they kept the people in perpetual poverty so that they can be of use every four years.
They know that it is difficult for someone who is very hungry to resist cash. Some of them have children that are of voting age; some have four children plus their wife and themselves. “If you multiply N5000 by six, it gives you N30,000, which is a huge amount to these people.
“To make these kind of money huge and important, that is why they (APC) have kept them in that financial bondage.
“In the United States of America, for example, it will be foolhardy for anyone o envelope $10 or $20 for people to vote.
“They will be asking you if you are okay or if you have not gone crazy because what are they going to do with it?
“The basic things of life have been taken of by the government but here, their dignity is already taken off them with the way the APC has kept them.
“The security agencies compromised. The see and buy thing was going on while the security agencies looked the other way.
“INEC is also culpable because the arrangement of the polling booth and the ballot boxes was awkward. You wonder why this should be so. The election may appear free nut it was not fair.
“It was not free of violence anyway because the third thing they did, was to make use of their thugs.
“We have videos of some of their thugs snatching ballot boxes. What did the security agents do, they looked the other way.”
“The decision will be taken in the next few hours. We are going to meet but the central message here is that this election is rejected. Segun Oni is not accepting the results, he is not conceding and he is not congratulating anybody because this is not an election”
