Ekiti State Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Jackson Adebayo, in this interview with SULAIMAN SALAWUDEEN argued that the July 14 election was a charade, insisting that the party would head for the tribunal to settle the scores
What is your assessment of the performance of the security personnel?
The security that came for the Saturday election were certainly clearly biased in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC). We can only call them the security arm of the APC. With their conduct, actions and inactions, they are the security arm of the APC. And that is why they did the bidding of the party to the letter, to the extent of criminality. They pretended as if they were not seeing anything. Did you truly notice vote-buying? Vote buying is against the Electoral Act, against the constitution of Nigeria. It is a corruptible practice, condemnable in all moral and legal senses, perpetrated even with the aid of these so-called security agencies. In some places, the security were the ones that were giving tally to people that would collect money from members of the APC. In my own polling unit, where I reported these people distributing money, one of the police personnel on hand, a woman, told me pointedly that there is nothing that concerns her about that, and that I should go and mind my own business.
But there were allegations that PDP also induced voters.
It is very easy to make allegations, but to prove them is always very difficult. I am using my own as an example. I am a victim of these security men aiding and abetting corruption, criminality. In fact at a certain stage, could you believe that an APC man harassed my children? He said they were not my children, saying they would not be allowed to vote. Yet the security men were looking the other way. This was at Moba Local Government, Ward 2, Unit 03. So, you can imagine.
Are you contending that the FG used its might to favour APC?
Not only its might but its totality of might to destroy democracy in Ekiti State. Apart from the siege laid on Ekiti on the eve of the election, it was a hell for PDP members. While thugs that were believed to be sponsored by APC were roaming around with police escorts, could you believe that the governor’s security was withdrawn, when thugs were very free to move about? Unless the FG would tell us that those security that were brought to the state were fake. That is the only reason we can believe that. According to the Police DIG, security personnel of VIPs would be withdrawn, all APC leaders were going about with police escorts, not only one, at least four or five. Cyril Fasuyi was going about with about four in Ido Ekiti, or five. An ordinary citizen in Ikosun Ekiti, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, was going about with a Hilux van loaded with escorts, while just an ordinary citizen in Ikosun Ekiti, Moba Local Government, was going about with four, five security men on the election day. An ordinary man, I could not remember the name of the boy.
How many of your members were arrested?
We could not even say specific figure. You hear five people were arrested here, 10 there. Before you finish a story of this arrest, another has come. We thought some of our members travelled after the election, we got to know they were just arrested that same day, by this same security men who later dumped them in the cell. So, to give actual figure is difficult. May be by tomorrow we will be hearing another story of arrest.
So what will be your assessment of security that day?
Security was devilish, satanic, undemocratic, unprofessional and ruinous. We cannot say security really performed anything except they came to destroy and conquer the goodwill of Ekiti people.
How then do you assess INEC’s verdict that Fayemi won the election. What is your view of that verdict?
The verdict of INEC is that result of July 14 is not acceptable to us as a party. It cannot be acceptable to any democracy-loving people across the world. This is an election that was robbed, stolen. After the exercise, they went ahead to alter and falsify results.
Do you have any evidence?
Yes, we have evidences. Like in Iyin Ward A and B, they went to the house of General Adeyinka Adebayo and they forced all the presiding officers, the party agents, they took them to a place at gun point to be signing already prepared form EC8 where they allotted 500 to PDP, 4000 to APC. The same thing happened in Igbemo where they went to the house of one chief where they concocted numbers and forced people to sign, after driving away some PDP leaders and their agents. It happened in several places like that. We have evidences. That is why we are going to the tribunal. We will present our case at the tribunal.
Don’t you see the result of the election as an assessment of the governor, a referendum upon his performance?
Don’t even talk about the governor. We are talking about a democracy that has been destroyed, battered in Ekiti. Whether the governor has performed or not, Ekiti people had made up their mind to vote for Prof. Eleka. They have made up their mind and that was whyit became so difficult for them to rig in the first instance. Which was why they resorted to alteration of figures. If it were easy, they would have done that ready and quiet.
Was anybody’s house vandalised , were there shootings?
Yes, there were. One Chief Adeboro’s house in Ikole Local Government was vandalized by security agents.
And there are no pictures?
There are pictures. The same thing happens to Muni Eleja’s house in Ikole. The same Ikole. The house was vandalised, louvres destroyed. In Ijurin Ekiti, the house of Chief Mike Omoleye was destroyed, was shattered. Vehicle belongingnto one of our members was shattered. In Egbe Ekiti, Gbonyin Local Government, the same thing. Everywhere. So, we have evidences.
Why are the evidences just coming out. But even as we talk, none of the evidences are in the media?
It is the fault of the media. I am a journalist myself. It is the fault of the media. The media have not made efforts to find out. If you did not come to me now, how will you know? If you ask for it I will provide it for you.
But APC is saying that security personnel performed more professionally than they did in 2014.
If armed robbers are working for you, how do you rate them when they bring their loot to you? Definitely, you rate them as having done well. So also were the security as it has secured what they wanted for them. They secured the votes for them. They secured the criminality for them,they secured the anomalies for them. They secured the electoral malpractice for them. They secured everything that is bad in democracy for them. How do you expect them to rate the security agencies? They would rate them well.
What is your verdict on INEC?
INEC did not perform well. Let us start from the normal process. The card reader which they told us was a robust card reader, was an efficient card reader, was an enhanced card reader. It failed woefully. In at least 80 percent of the polling units in the state. Before they started voting in some places, it took them more than three hours, because of the malfunctioning of this particular card reader. This was the card reader you said was this, was that. We could not see any improvement in that. That is one, two even those people working with INEC were compromised.
How?
You see them by their actions at polling units. There were places where INEC was the one campaigning for APC. I mean the people working for INEC were asking the electorate if they wanted to vote for the APC. Finally, was it not in INEC where the election was altered? Where was the announcement of results haboured, was it not in INEC? So, INEC performed woefully.
Considering the gap, less than 20,000 votes, does this not reflect fairness?
In 2014, PDP won the entire 16 councils. In Ekiti State, we have never had figures like this. The reason is this. In Ekiti, people used to make up their mind, where they would go. We are not cowards. So whoever they want to vote for would have wide margin. Whenever you see margins like these, you know it is a manipulated margin. It can never be like that. That shows you that something is hidden somewhere. It was in the process of adding up, adding up that they even got to that place. You will hear many things in court. You will hear many revelations. The result was altered three times to make up for that final figure.
What is your message to your supporters?
We just tell them to keep calm. We have our facts ansd figures. We have a very good case before us and we are going to win this case. We have good battle to fight. We thank the people because they have not gone out to start misbehaving, or doing one thing or the other. If it were before, Ekiti would have come out and nothing will happen. The security men would have been consumed. It happened in 1983, it happened in 1963. It is because we have maintained maturity. We urge them to continue
