If not for the immediate decision of Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State to take his defeat courageously and congratulate his opponent and winner of the governorship election held in the state on Saturday, the All Progressives Congress (APC) would have embarked on challenging the result of the election, Huhuonline.com can reveal.
As declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Fayose, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), emerged winner after polling a total of 203,090 votes against Fayemi of APC who had 120,433 votes and the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Opeyemi Bamidele who got 18,135 votes.
Sources close to Fayemi within the APC said the defeated governor did not give his party the chance to ruminate over the election and its result before taking the decision to call Fayose to congratulate him. The governor delivered a broadcast few hours after the result was released in which he promised to work with the newly elected governor to pursue developmental goals for the state.
“If indeed this is the will of the Ekiti People, I stand in deference to your will. If the result of the elections is an expression of the voice of our people, we must all heed your voice,” Fayemi had said.
“I have just spoken with my brother, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, congratulating him on his victory. In a few hours from now, I would be meeting the governor-elect to discuss the future of our dear state and how we would work together to institute a smooth transition programme.
“Our performance and achievements in office will remain the backdrop against which the next government and indeed future governments will be assessed. We are proud that with the support of Ekiti people, we have raised the bar of excellence in governance. In all, we gave our best, for conscience and for posterity.
“To members of our party, our campaign team and indeed all Ekiti people who defied the siege on our state to cast their votes for our party, I salute your exemplary courage and doggedness in the face of harassment. Thank you for staying the course. The incidences of brazen harassment, intimidation and allied infractions on fundamental human rights, which many of you suffered in the hands of agents of the state, would be documented and communicated to the appropriate authorities, for the records,” Fayemi had said during the short broadcast.”
Sources in the party told Huhuonline.com that it was Fayemi’s decision not to pursue any case against Fayose and the PDP. According to some of them, the governor saw no need in the pressure from his party to reject the result as he was also said not to have been too satisfied with the effort put by them in his election.
One of the sources in the party explained that Fayemi conceded victory even before his party had the time to review the election and take a decision. According to him, though the election was generally peaceful, there was what he called “technical rigging.”
“There was no issue of snatching of ballot papers or boxes, there was no case of violence during the election, but there was technical rigging and that was what our party would have held on to. For example, Segun Oni and his household of about 11 voted in his ward and we all know that this is an APC family. When result of the ward was released, only one vote was recorded for APC in that ward. This happened in some other wards,” the APC chieftain told Huhuonline.com.
“Apart from this was the security intimidation that went on in many areas. It started with the head of mobile police in the state saying he was directed to ensure victory for the PDP. Then you can talk about the harassment of the APC governors who were to attend the grand campaign of the governor. On the day of the election, a lot of the APC strongholds were filled with security men thus indirectly scaring our people from coming out.
“My brother, no matter how courageous you are, you can’t come out to vote in such a tensed situation. Imagine 12,000 police officers, 15,000 officers of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps, apart from the soldiers and others all fully armed.
“We had enough ground to challenge that result, but where the one we are to defend had gone ahead before us, then we do not have much to fight for other than to face the challenges of meeting success in Osun State and in 2015 during the general elections.”
He said the Ekiti election had given the APC reasons to review its activities and come out strong.
