Category: Ekiti Decides 2022

There was a large turnout of voters for the Ekiti governorship election in many parts of Ado-Ekiti as hundreds of voters trooped to the polling units as early as 6:45 am.

At ward 8, unit 4 and 5, Odo Aremu area of Ado metropolis, The Nation met more than 100 voters waiting for officials the the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) around 7.05 am.

A van belonging to the Nigeria Army and Police with was stationed at the Ereguru junction and Oke-Ori Omi along the Old Governor’s Office.

At St. Thomas Primary School Irona, the voters were seen checking their names on the lists with INEC staff already at their duty post.

Also when correspondent got to St. Paul primary school, Odo Ado, Ado-Ekiti, people were seen in their numbers as early as 7:25am checking the voters’ register pasted on the wall.

Also at Ward 8, Ereguru, Ado-Ekiti, party loyalists, agents, voters came out en masse to cast their votes

As early as 7:05am, voters were at the polling unit where the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, Senator Femi Ojudu, will vote President watching with keen interest as INEC officials prepared the ground for the election.

An elderly woman, Alhaja Suliyat Oguntuase, at Ereguru said: “I am here early to get accredited don’t have the and exercise my franchise because I don’t have energy to fight or stay long in the queue”.

The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State may perform poorly in today’s governorship election.

This has been attributed to poor funding by critical stakeholders of the party.

Besides poor funding, some residents in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, said the battle in today’s poll is between the All Progressives Congress(APC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Mr. Olufemi, a bartender, simply said:”The PDP is finished in Ekiti State. It is either the APC or the SDP and you know people are hungry.”

Another resident who gave his name as Kola, said he would decide who to vote for when he got to the polling unit.

It was gathered that the cancellation of the final grand rally of the PDP dealt a big blow to chances of the party’s candidate, Bisi Kolawole.

A member of the Ekiti PDP who pleaded anonymity said the outcome of the party’s presidential primary where Governor Nyesom Wike lost out was responsible for the fate of the party in Ekiti.

He said the party would be going into today’s election ‘on sheer hope.’

The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Engr Segun Oni and its rival in the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) Biodun Oyebanji on Friday exchanged verbal invectives over alleged harassment and clampdown on supporters of the former.

Oni accused the ruling APC of unlawful arrest and intimidation of SDP members and supporters with the purpose of demobilising his followers ahead of the saturday’s governorship election.

Oni, who addressed journalists in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital on Friday said the governing APC and its bunch of desperate members are already violating the peace agreement signed before the Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar-led National Peace Commission.

Oni said rather than adhering strictly to the democractic tenets and ethos in the conduct of the governorship poll, those he described as “oppressors”, had been unleashing terror on his supporters with fake soldiers.

“I will keep to the peace accord. But peace can only be absolutely protected when you are standing on justice, equity, truth and fair-play.

“But when you are kidnapping people , it renders every peace document invalid. Let us tell them not to set this state on fire. Those who had been going round to kidnap my supporters should be called to order now. They are testing the patience and tolerance of the people.

“One of my supporters was arrested and detained for alleged kidnapping three days back using a section of the police.

“They shouldn’t set this state on fire. If anybody commits offence and they think they are the authorities to go round and be arresting people at night, then the peace accord becomes shattered immediately,” he said.

The SDP governorship candidate said for the election to be free, fair and credible the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security outfits must shun partisanship and provide a level playing for all candidates.

He alerted the electoral body, observers, security, international community and other stakeholders on the expediency for stringent adherence to democratic ethos in the conduct of the election.

“For this election to be acceptable, the REC must stamp and sign all forms EC8A , EC8B, EC8C and EC8D and not by any other agent or staff . Once the REC stamps and signs, nobody will be able to smuggle any form of fake results.

“Results at polling units must be uploaded at polling units by polling officers in the presence of party agents. INEC must provide alternative network providers to make up for network failure.

“Nobody should be allowed to tamper with the results. Election is the backbone of democratic practice. If you forgot to relate with the people in the last four years after your election, then you are bound to be rejected. No one should be allowed to win election by subterfuge”.

But the Director of Media and Publicity, Biodun Oyebanji Campaign Organisation, Hon. Taiwo Olatunbosun, dismissed the allegation, describing it as malicious and peurille.

He said Oni had resulted to cheap lies to gain public sympathy preparatory to the election, having realized that majority of Ekiti people had abandoned his ambition for Oyebanji.

Olatunbosun said the SDP were “trying to get unnecessary attention. If they know that they don’t have candidates who can win election, they should quit the race. They should stop all these unnecessary insinuations and assumptions.

“SDP should stop chasing shadow. Are they saying APC is a security agents or agencies. APC is not Police, DSS, and Civil Defense, so why are they accusing us of arrest of their supporters?

“Honestly, whoever that is involved in any crimes, I don’t think party politics should be an avenue to shield any criminal.What I can advise them is to ensure that they stop whatever brigandage or criminality they want to perpetrate at this period. Safety and security of lives have nothing to do with electioneering processes.

“My own take is that every Ekiti citizens must be law abiding but should there be any reason for security agencies to invite any individual I think they should go and answer whatever crime they must have committed with the police instead of trying to drag our good name or party into their issues”, he added.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reiterated its readiness to conduct a free and fair governorship election in Ekiti on Saturday.

The resident electoral commissioner (REC) Adeniran Tella stated this while receiving the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Johnson Kokumo, who is in charge of the governorship poll.

Tella reassured residents of Ekiti, smooth conduct of Saturday’s election.

He said: “Security operatives are critical stakeholders to the electoral process. We seriously identify with security operatives.

“We need security operatives to mitigate against electoral issues. We want operatives to discover early signal warnings, and mitigate any little threat.

“We are already setting up the situation room, which will get signals from various local government across the state.

“Opening of poll on the day of election is very important and we don’t joke with it. We want security operatives to come to our aid. We want 100% target of opening polls very early on day of election.

Tella also pleaded for timely and strategic review of security operations while the electoral activities is ongoing.

On the part of the commission, Tella stated that this would be the first of its kind that the commission would be deploying technology innovation especially Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

“We will conduct the election in a free, fair and credible one. We want to showcase this election to the world.” He stated.

Tella further pleaded for vigilance from the security operatives especially intruders from neighbouring states.

He also pledged that the electoral umpire would be neutral and discharge its responsibilities without bias to ensure that the governorship elections were transparent, free and credible.