PDP rejects result of Ekiti governorship election, Eleka says “I won overwhelmingly”

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the results of the Ekiti governorship election in which Kayode Fayemi, the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), defeated Kolapo Olusola, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The APC candidate polled 197,459 votes while the PDP candidate had 178,121 votes.

Speaking with journalists on Sunday, Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of the PDP, said it was clear that their candidate won based on results from the various polling centres.

“The PDP cannot be crushed. The PDP rejects in its entirety the results concocted by the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies, in the governorship election in Ekiti state and declared by INEC,” Ologbondiyan said.

“The party rejects the falsified results and declaration of APC candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to be the winner of the election, as a daylight robbery, a brazen subversion of the will of the people and a direct assault on our democracy.

“From the authentic results flowing directly from the polling centres across the state, it is clear that the PDP candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola-Eleka, incontrovertibly won the election, with a very comfortable margin over the APC candidate, only for INEC to allow the alteration of results at the collation centres.”

The spokesman said card readers were brought in from other states to rig the election.

“The PDP has the details of all the polling units where we won, mostly with very wide margin ahead of the APC, only for the security agencies to chase away our agents, then aid the alteration and swapping of such results with those smuggled in by the APC at the collation centres,” he said.

“We know how APC conspired with INEC to bring in card reader machines belonging to Kogi, Lagos, Ondo, Oyo, Ogun states into Ekiti state to enable APC members from these states to vote in Ekiti election with ease.”

He said it is shameful that the APC would rely on “brute force” to win the Ekiti election.

“This robbery of the franchise of Ekiti people is a horrible rape of our democracy and it is most uncharitable that it could happen under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari as well as the participation of the APC, who hugely benefitted from the credible electoral process midwived by the PDP in 2015.

“Let it be known to all that, surely, this electoral banditry will not stand. The PDP is already collating all the infractions in this election and within the possible timeframe, we shall make our next step to reclaiming our stolen mandate public.”

-Olusola says he won overwhelmingly, allege connivance between INEC and Security agencies-

“You are all aware of the unfortunate and dangerous events of the past 24 hours, in which our governorship election was hijacked by political desperadoes leveraging on “Federal might” to pervert the electoral process, subvert the will of Ekiti people, and viciously steal the mandate willingly and freely given to me on a massive scale by our people,” he said

“PDP and I won the election overwhelmingly, receiving more than 70% of lawful votes cast and winning in almost all of the state’s 16 local government areas. I therefore reject the falsified results being bandied by the Independent National Electoral Commission, which purportedly gave the election to the All Progressives Congress and its Candidate; Dr. John Kayode Fayemi.”

The aggrieved politician accused INEC of conspiring with APC to thwart the exercise.

”On Saturday, July 14th, the security agencies and INEC upped the ante, threw all caution to the wind, went back on their promises to be impartial and to conduct credible elections; they sided with APC and Fayemi to the chagrin of our party, myself, and the good people of Ekiti state,” he said.

“Despite the alarm we had earlier raised, the security agencies not only supported but also supervised the indiscriminate arrest of our party leaders and agents, the harassment and brutalization of voters on a massive scale, especially in Ado-Ekiti, Ikere and the suburbs, giving cover, tacit as well as active support to thugs imported into Ekiti by APC to snatch ballot boxes, create confusion, cause mayhem, and drive away voters in PDP strongholds, giving cover to APC agents as they financially and openly induced voters and bought votes at polling stations; and driving away our polling agents from collation centres and illegal seizure of documents and materials in their possession, among many other infractions.”

“Without doubt, what has played out in Ekiti is the APC template for the 2019 General Election, where they have mapped out Rivers and Akwa Ibom as States they must capture at all costs, like they are now trying to do Ekiti. It is now left for the opposition and opposition figures, most especially presidential hopefuls in 2019, to stand up to be counted in the struggle to roll back President Muhammadu Buhari’s creeping fascism, or throw in the towel without a fight.
“This is not just a sad day for Ekiti but also for democracy in Nigeria. Nothing demonstrates this better than the gloom that has enveloped our dear State since they announced their convoluted result. Ekiti mourns! But I ask our people not to be despondent but to keep hope alive, quoting the inimitable Chief MKO Abiola. This is another battle we will fight and win.”