Ekiti 2018: Fayemi’s friends on electoral committee – Segun Oni

Agency ReporterMay 7, 2018

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A former Ekiti State governor, Segun Oni, and a former member of the Senate, Babafemi Ojudu, have advised the National Working Committee of the APC to investigate the cause of the violence that led to the suspension of the governorship primary in Ekiti State on Saturday.

The duo alleged that some of the members of the electoral committee, chaired by the Nasarawa State Governor, Umaru Al-Makura, were friends of former governor Kayode Fayemi, who is also an aspirant.

Oni, a former APC National Deputy Chairman and governorship aspirant of the party, said the way “some people who were discovered to be friends of a particular aspirant” were nominated to the Ekiti governorship primary committee put the integrity of the party’s national leadership to question.

Oni spoke in Ifaki Ekiti on Sunday while reacting to the violence that marred the Saturday’s primary of the party.

Trouble started when agents of some of the aspirants complained that the electoral process was being manipulated.

It paved the way for some thugs to storm the venue, snatching ballot boxes and smashing them on the ground.

Oni, who described the violence as very unfortunate, said Oyegun must investigate how the secretary of the committee, Mogaji Aliyu, a known ally of one of the aspirant’’s, was made a member of the committee.

“Some people have penchant for cheating and manipulating the structure of of the party to favour a particular aspirant. I was the APC National Deputy Chairman for four years; despite that, I did not use my position to influence anything about a primary I was directly involved.

“When you have penchant for fraud or to cheat the system, it makes democracy to look uninteresting.

“We found out that the secretary of the committee, Aliyu Mogaji, was nominated by an aspirant, and Governor Al-Makura later got to know about this and dropped him from functioning as the returning officer.

“Even the fraud festered to the ranks of the security agencies. I quite appreciate the fact that violence was not the right way, but it was caused because of pent-up anger.

“That is why the NWC led by Chief Oyegun owes all of us a thorough explanation about how Mogaji found himself on the committee and how to prevent such in future; otherwise, we are hiding under democracy to fool ourselves.

“Whether I will be governor or not or hold political office in the future, I think enough is enough about people being desperate to get positions because we must give confidence to our people.”

When asked whether consensus will be best option, Oni said he supported the idea, adding that such would be difficult to attain with the turnout of events.

Also speaking on Sunday, Ojudu denied the allegation that he organised the violence that marred the primary, describing it as spurious and senseless.

Addressing journalists in Ado Ekiti, Ojudu clarified that he never exhibited any desperation and that was why he didn’t go to the election venue with party supporters.

He said, “I don’t like thugs, I don’t have them around me. It is Fayemi who is getting desperate. Do you camp people if you are not desperate? There is a video of who disrupted the primary, the police should arrest and prosecute him.

“They said I was desperate, but let us ask ourselves; who among the aspirants took delegates to Igbara Oke and Owo in Ondo State to camp them? It was Fayemi. He was the one who compromised the committee and bought over security agencies to compromise the process.

“I brought him to Ekiti, I did a lot for him to be governor, so I know him to be desperate and we were getting video clips about how he offered bribes to delegates and how he was making calls at the election venue to top security brass in Ekiti and Abuja to cheat the system.

“Let me tell him, all these antics will not work. The primary will be conducted and it must be free, fair and credible,” he said