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Tag: Ekitigate

  • Mainagate = Ekitigate? Fayose is capitalizing on Buhari/APC betrayals of their “change” agenda – with their support!

    Mainagate = Ekitigate? Fayose is capitalizing on Buhari/APC betrayals of their “change” agenda – with their support!

    Like most Nigerians who are not fanatical supporters of the former ruling party, the PDP, I used to think that on account of the political crimes that committed in the infamous Ekitigate scandal of 2014, the only thing standing between Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and a long prison sentence is the notorious Section 308(1) of the Nigerian Constitution.  This of course is the “immunity” clause in our 1999 Constitution that shields Governors and Deputy Governors from prosecution for any and all civil and criminal liabilities and behavior while they are still in office. This is why I used to think, quite bitterly, that but for Clause 308(1), Fayose would be in prison right now where he belongs – with many others among our political elites. Well, in 2019 Fayose’s term as Governor will end and he will no longer be protected by Clause 308. Will the chickens come home to roost for him then? Alas, this is not certain for it is no longer a foregone conclusion that even then Fayose’s Ekitigate crimes will catch up with him. This is the starting point for this week’s column. To start us off, a few words on Ekitigate before we link it later in the discussion with the latest mega-scandal of the Buhari-APC regime, Mainagate.

    Ekitigate is rather unique in the history of one of the worst political offenses both in our country and in all the constitutional democracies of the world – the illegal use of the institutional violence legally concentrated in the military and security forces of the state to rig elections. Now, this offense, in itself, is not rare in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, it is pervasive in our country and is usually perpetrated with maximum impunity, often rising to unspeakable levels of barbarity, even by our own very low standards. For instance, in the periods of Obasanjo and Jonathan administrations during the reign of the PDP, this political crime reached chilling levels of homicidal destructiveness in states like Rivers and Akwa Ibom. So again, Fayose was doing nothing uncommon in Ekitigate, even if it was still an unconscionable political crime.  However, with Fayose and Ekitigate, two things happened to make that particular mega-scandal unique. First, the crime was exposed for the whole world to grasp right at the very scene of its perpetration. Secondly, when caught in the act, Fayose not only offered no denial, as a matter of fact he admitted his participation in it, almost with a boast! Permit me to give a short elaboration of this observation.

    As the whole world knows, the “Ekitigate” scandal was exposed in a recorded conversation that was widely circulated on the Internet. Well, “conversation” is a wrong word for what Nigerians and the whole world heard on that YouTube post. A more appropriate word is a tirade, raised to the level of an uncontrollable rant. Throughout the clip that we all heard on the Internet, Fayose was the aggressor, the bellicose verbal pugilist. The cowering object of his unrestrained harangue was a Nigerian Army Major who was reduced to the level of mumbling spinelessness. “Have you and your men not been given the monies my men brought to you from me? And haven’t your own Army Headquarters given you instructions to obey my orders, to deal with any opposition politicians and their supporters that I ask you to deal with?” Names were mentioned. Huge sums of money were indicated. The raging fire of Fayose’s anger toward the Army Major seemed to have been stoked by his feeling that the military officer seemed not to realize that his superiors at Army Headquarters were all errand boys to him, the one and only Fayose whose power was second only to that of Goodluck Jonathan, the Head of State himself. Cowed but not completely subdued, the Army Major was saved from total ignominy only by the simple but profound fact that he it was who recorded the whole “show” and had it broadcast on the Internet. But all the same, his admission that he and his men received corrupt largess from the Ekiti State Governor, and his cowering servility before Fayose’s, all smeared the Nigerian army and the security forces in great dishonor.

    Thus, in the Ekitigate scandal, Fayose was caught red-handed and his crimes broadcast to the whole world. But what was truly astonishing, what most Nigerians could not comprehend, was the fact that Fayose did not for a second deny that it was his voice, his arrogant threats and unholy imprecations, that were heard in the recording that everyone heard on the Internet. I thought to myself: well, if he could not deny that he was the evil wrongdoer in the tape since experts could easily prove that the voice we heard was his, why did he so readily confess to the crime to the point of being actually boastful about it? This is the point at which, as the saying goes, the rubber meets the road; it is the place where, in the context of the issues that I wish to raise in this piece, Mainagate confronts Ekitigate.

    Since Mainagate is a more recent mega-scandal whose shock waves are still blowing across the swamplands of Nigerian political corruption, we can deal with it more succinctly. Abdulrasheed Maina, a man on the run, a fugitive from the law who had absconded allegedly with more than 11billion naira of pension funds unaccounted for. He suddenly shows up, not in a discovered hideout, but openly as a fully reinstated top-level bureaucrat in the Buhari administration’s civil service. The Chief Law Officer of the land is aware that he is back and in the administration. Presumably, all the other superintending heads of the investigative and security services of the nation are aware of this fact, for how could a first-class fugitive like Maina come back without their connivance? The old-age pensioners whose lives have forever been destroyed by Maina’s crimes are still here in their hundreds of thousands, though thousands of other pensioners have gone to their graves, the probability of any future restitution effectively beyond their reach. Maina is back and is in business once again. But wait! As soon as the public raises hue and cry that Maina has come back and is in the administration, Maina disappears again. Maina go; Maina come; Maina go again! De thing wey man pickin dey suffer for dis our country!

    So, where does the rubber meet the road? Where does Ekitigate embrace Mainagate in a mutuality of “barawo” politics? For the answer to this question, I ask, compatriots, that we ponder carefully the reason (or reasons) why today, Governor Fayose, has become quite easily not only the fiercest critic of President Buhari in particular and the APC in general, but also the only of one among the non-APC state governors that pitches his criticisms of Buhari in absolute terms. He has discovered, I suggest, that Buhari almost never responds to criticisms at all. On the very few occasions that he does respond, he does so almost disdainfully, as if it is irksome in the extreme for him to do so. And by the way, Buhari responds to all criticisms in this manner, regardless of whether the person or persons concerned are members of his party or not. Fayose has sensed this as “second nature” to Buhari and he has used it very well, indeed rather astutely. Permit me to offer two particularly revealing illustrations of this observation.

    One: About two weeks ago when Buhari finally sacked the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal, together with the former Director of the National Security Administration, Ayo Oke, Fayose’s voice was the loudest in claiming that Buhari sacked the two men, who had been charged with rank corruption of the highest order, only because the Nigerian public had been unrelenting in its demand that the two men be sacked. Having said this, Fayose went further and insisted that the sacking of Lawal and Oke was not enough and was far too little compared with what Buhari should have done in the first place, which is have them prosecuted, have them punished and have the funds they looted recovered from them. As you are reading this, please note, compatriots, that in the statement in which the sacking of Babachir Lawal and Ayo Oke was announced, the President said absolutely nothing about prosecution of the two men. At any rate, this is standard Buhari practice: he says little and he says it when he wants to, absolutely regardless of how the issue at hand relates to good governance and to his and the APC’s “change” agenda. More than any other politician today, Fayose knows this fact about Buhari and he is capitalizing hugely on it.

    Two: Perhaps the single most ominous issue on which President Buhari has been both quiescent and neglectful of purposeful and inspiring leadership is the standoff in many parts of the country between cattle breeders and farming communities, this being a variant of the age-old conflict between so-called “settlers” and “indigenes”. True enough, this tragic matter did not start with Buhari’s accession to power. But there’s no disputing the fact that it has increased significantly in the space of his two years in office. Thousands of lives have been lost, most of them extremely violently. And properties have been destroyed and laid to waste, in farm produce and livestock, incalculably. Worst of all, if Buhari has been touched in any meaningful human way unfolding tragedy, he has yet to show it.

    With this dereliction of responsibility and human sympathy on the part of the President, Fayose has seized the chance to batter away at whatever claims Buhari has to fairness, to courage, to humaneness. And, believe it or not, people North and South are listening to Fayose on this matter. He has labelled Buhari a Fulani chauvinist and irredentist who has remained unmoved because the killings and wastage have been heavier on the Non-Fulani farming communities. In this, Fayose is very much aware that he is widely regarded as the one who says loudly and clearly what hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, are thinking about Buhari. And if the plain truth be told, to the folks in many parts of the country whose lives and livelihood have been touched by this tragic farmers and herdsmen conflict, Fayose is nothing short of a folk hero. And indeed, sometime last year, Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the RCCG, in a speech in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital, hailed Fayose as a living legend. No one had any doubt that with this extraordinary praise, Adeboye was referring to Fayose’s outspoken and incendiary declarations against “the menace of herdsmen”. Heaven help us!

    One final comment on Fayose’s calculations, on his deliberate project of capitalizing on Buhari and the APC’s departures from the “change” agenda that brought them to power and I will bring this essay to its conclusion. I started the discussion by observing that I no longer think that Fayose will ever face the music for the crimes he not only committed but admitted that he committed in the Ekitigate scandal. When Fayose made that admission, the PDP was still in power. For this reason, he may have thought that he was untouchable for in 2014, the PDP had no intensions whatsoever of relinquishing power by any means short of a bloody coup. And also, there’s Clause 308(1) of the Constitution, the “immunity” clause. But beyond all these considerations and far more important, in my opinion, is the fact that Fayose knew and still knows that in our country, you can get away with anything, always on the assumption that what you plan to get away with must be very, very big. And it must cause the greatest damage possible to the country, especially the ordinary folks in their millions. Ekitigate. Mainagate. And so many others, ad nauseum.

    • Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

     

  • Ekitigate and NA 38: Have We Forgotten So Soon?

    A story is making the rounds about a  petition to Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo on behalf of the 38 senior military officers that were compulsorily retired in June of last year having be found to be corrupt, partisan or ethnic in the performance of their duty. The petition written on behalf of the disgraced officers by one barrister Abdul Muhammed produced headlines like “How Buratai, Dan Alli and Olonisakin Destroyed the Lives of 38 Senior Army Officers.”
    To say the least, the petition is an insult on the intellect of every Nigerian that believes in the country making progress economically and democratically for it collectively painted us all as persons whose memory do not go beyond the span of 12 months. The document is a slight on the integrity of Professor Osinbajo by insinuating that he lacks the capacity to personally and independently decipher events and bereft of capacity to recall whose import he was aware of at the time of their making.
    Barrister Abdul Muhammed must have his assumption for wasting productive time in drafting the incoherent petition and apparently chief among them is misplaced belief that Nigerians have forgotten the knife edge uncertainty that the actions of some of these officers placed the country upon by their unprofessional act. If the lawyer was genuinely deluded, the citizens have the painful burden of asking a pertinent question: Have We Forgotten So Soon?
    How can we forget that some of these officers that are today being portrayed as saints took it upon themselves to descend into the arena of politics? They were this close to polarizing the military along political lines. So nauseous were their conducts that that they were on the verge of foisting their own brand of power through the barrels of gun on the people by actively conniving to sabotage the ballot as the only recognized means for the people to express their desire and choice of leaders. Does this lawyer seriously think the disgraceful act engaged in by someone like Brigadier General Aliyu Momoh, who sat in a hotel room to pervert the will of Ekiti people and bestow the disaster called Ayo Fayose is a trait that should be allowed to persist in Nigeria’s revered military?
    If the Brigadier was punished for maliciously and criminally abusing troops under his command and corrupting them to tarnish that which they were sworn to protect in the small enclave that is Ekiti state, why should those that repeat the same bad behaviour on a national scale not be dealt with on a more intense scale?  Perhaps, the expectation was that they would be left in place after threatening Nigeria’s democracy so that they would be in place to strike a final damaging blow at a time of their choosing.
    There is no point wasting too much time detailing the damage done by those that were shown the way out for dipping their hands in the public till in acts that ultimately led to the death of some troops. But in a country where even convicted thieves and corruption suspects on trial are feted as the credible opposition one is barely surprise that the disgraced officers are the latest on the list of those that are now considered victims that must be immediately canonized, washed with media bleach and presented as saintly frontrunners in the next general elections.
    It is best we do not raise the issue of those that were ethnic champions among the retired officers. It is to the credit of such failures that we owe the mutation of ethnic agitation that has become a singsong in the land. If elite military men sank into the opprobrium of seeing their nation as less than their ethnic stock when matters are reckoned then there is no basis to expect nationalism from a barely educated and definitely unenlightened artisan or petty trader. It is the realization of such banality that has made the crimes of the former officers in question  deserving of the punishment meted out and more.
    It will therefore appear the group of 38 misled their lawyer because being a learned fellow he must know the implication of trying to pull a fast one on Nigerians and Professor Osinbajo. Or is it that the lawyer, going by the address of his chambers in the domain of the former president that was defeated in the polls, was intent on mischief for its face value? This could be another in the series of the spoilers that have been lined up to paint the current government in bad light.
    It is apparent in the new desperate bid to taint the Minister of Defense, Mr. Mansur Dan Ali, Chief of Defense Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur  Yusufu Buratai, when all the allegations raised in the so called petition has been disposed of, having been found to be without merit. What could then be the objective of presenting the re-hash of the same none-issue to the Acting President? Could it be that they think Nigeria has suddenly become tolerant of corruption or that there is a new approval making political soldiers the toast of the town? Whatever drove them and their wig for hire lawyer to submit that petition is irresponsible.
    More irresponsible however is their decision to leak their petition to the media, a copy that bears no mark of acknowledgment to prove the Acting President’s Office received it anyway. The leakage nonetheless betrays the true intent to blackmail Professor Osinbajo into reversing decisions taken to sanitize one of the important institutions in the country, the military. What is reassuring is that the Acting President is by now wise to the antics of this gang and will not be taken in for a minute.
    He must note that these people are the ones planting stories in the media to discredit the military. It is their new stock in trade and is proof that throwing them out of the Armed Forces was a timely decision that saved the country. Had these political soldiers that have stashed away slush funds as war chest with their ethnic backing not been exposed,  God knows they would have overthrown the democratically elected government by now. The Acting President must therefore properly read this petition for what it is, an attempt to test the waters and see how easily he could be shaken, a prelude to the attempt they will make to snatch power from him. We have not forgotten so soon how toxic these characters can be.
    Ainoko, a public affairs commentator writes from Kaduna, Kaduna State.‎
  • Ekitigate: We’re vindicated, says APC

    Ekitigate: We’re vindicated, says APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has said the revelations by former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, has vindicated its claim that Governor Ayodele Fayose’s election on June 21, 2014 was compromised.

    In a statement in Ado-Ekiti yesterday by Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, the party said Obanikoro’s confession that he gave millions of dollars in cash to Fayose to fix his election had left Nigerians in clearer picture that Fayose won his election through fraud as the party had always insisted.

    “We said it that Fayose was mobilised by the Federal Government with funds, military and  the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to win his election.

  • Ekitigate: INEC and conspiracy of silence

    There are some discernible parallels in the response of Nigerian Police and the Yoruba governors to the menace of Fulani herdsmen. The only difference is that while the former has been hypocritical, the later has been comical. For instance the Inspector General of Police, after almost seven years of mindless killing of armless men, women and children without anyone being brought to book, now says the police will “continue to monitor them, degrade them and continue to amputate them whenever they come up”. Perhaps now that the police have pledged to do the job for which they are paid, it will not be out of place to remind IG Arase that if the report of the judicial inquiry instituted under Jonah Jang of Plateau in which a former IG was indicted cannot be revisited by the police, he has the latest Agatu massacre as a lead. At least the Gan Allah Fulani, which is the umbrella body, for Fulani herdsmen, has taken responsibility for the Agatu killings.

    For the South-west governors, their response has been as absurd as it has been comical.  While the battle rages, Fayose who seems incapable of appreciating the challenge facing the Yoruba people is amusing himself sharing “ponmo” (cow skin) with his grassroot supporters in local markets. Mimiko has been holding clandestine meeting with aggrieved farmers and elders who are preaching secession.  Aregbesola is said to be targeting production of 10,000 cows per annum while his counterpart in Ibadan has been dissipating energy on the biggest abattoir built in Ibadan by his political rival. The feelings one gets from the discordant notes is an absence of a coordinated effort at responding to the challenges of meeting the demand of those, who like the Epicureans, consume 10,000 heads of cows daily in case forces of demand and supply force the principals of the embattled Fulani herdsmen, driven only by profit motive, to seek a more profitable market.

    But first an ode to our South-west politicians. Being a politician itself is a major nightmare. It is often a call for rejection of candour, honesty and acquisition of special skill for the exploitation of our common infirmities. It also calls for brinkmanship to balance the interest of those impoverished by their class members without endangering the health of group members or posing a threat to their ill-acquired fortunes if they are to avoid  ‘the Saraki treatment’ after becoming the whistle-blower in the N1.6trillion fuel subsidy scam. To be a successful politician is to be faithful to Adedibu’s precepts which include engaging in public brawl or swearing falsely by the Holy Koran.

    How many of us who pontificate on the pages of newspaper are like Bode George, prepared to go to jail for helping party members? How many can, with the help of thugs attack a judge in his court premises, chase out elected law makers of town, take over the House of Assembly to pass an unread budget ? How many critics have the guts to collect $34m of taxpayer’s money from a president who says ‘stealing is not corruption,’ for the purpose of rigging an election? How many of us can, with Awo cap delicately balanced on our heads, join ‘PDP governors without character’ to publicly declare 16 greater than 19?  How many of us can, like Fayemi, Opeyemi and Oni, men whose dressing is incomplete without Awo’s cap delicately balanced on their heads, engage in a brutal war of attrition over the governorship seat  and after losing it by default  move to Abuja, seat of power as champions of Ekiti cause? How many can like ex-Governor Daniel of Ogun lock up the state House of Assembly and rule like a sole administrator?

    Our new political leaders are no doubt versatile, daring, courageous, adventurous and very ambitious.  It is just that their best is not good enough for the Yoruba. In this regard, they have the records of their predecessors who regarded public service as sacrifice to contend with. They are being challenged by the standards set by Awo, Bode Thomas, Rotimi Wlliams, Adekunle Ajasin, Osuntokun, Adesanya, Enahoro etc, all honourable men who cooperated to form a formidable class with faith in a common destiny and a single purpose of creating a more egalitarian society in the Yoruba country. They served selflessly. When Oba Adesoji, the then Ooni of Ife was rejected by the colonial masters as representative of Yoruba, no other Yoruba was ready to step into his shoes until the colonial government was forced to swallow its pride. When Akintola, who Awo said could debate the same topic from both sides and win, became a thorn in the flesh of the colonial masters and those he then regarded as northern feudal lords, was asked to be replaced, Awo said he had searched without finding any more competent man to represent the Yoruba. Akintola retained his seat. This is precisely why many believe the struggle for power and influence by many of our today Yoruba politicians are not motivated by service and altruism.

    And one way of validating this thesis is the ongoing menace of Fulani herdsmen and the challenge of 10,000 cows a day. Rewind back to 60 years ago. Awo and his group encouraged their compatriots who wanted to eat cow to domesticate one. They imported cow adaptable to the Yoruba environment from Argentina. In the Second Republic, Ajasin a leading member of that set of visionary Yoruba leaders established the Otun Cattle ranch. Ex-Governor Segun Oni was the only person who had the presence of mind to have revisited the project. But half of the cows he imported from South Africa died while the project collapsed under Fayemi.   Our new leaders seem to prefer the philosopher’s cap to his philosophy.

    The current Fulani herdsmen incursion to the South-west is an economic war by the elite and the response can only be economics. We run a capitalist system which is about the survival of the fittest. A group of privileged northern elites and others from the rest of the country invested heavily on cattle farming with the aim of harvesting huge dividends. Instead of establishing ranches, they opted to maximize profit by hiring and arming underprivileged children who must graze the cattle until they get to their designated market in the South-west. Within the capitalist system we operate, the Fulani’s herdsmen share a common fate with underpaid factory workers or underpaid journalist.

    When there is a demand that cannot be met locally, there must be supply usually in the form of imported labour of other people. The answer to the menace of Fulani herdsmen is therefore local production to meet demand and not secession. What the Yoruba want is a more organized federation without the tyranny of a centre trying to decree the education of our children, the water they drink and the air they breathe. Yoruba is receptive to other Nigerians who live by the rules and equally thrive among strangers in far away Sokoto, Kano, Jos and Minna.

    Our governors are not doing enough. We must be able to feed ourselves. As suggested on these pages not too long ago, Tinubu must return to Lagos to coordinate the activities of governors who unfortunately have been made Leviathans by the Nigerian constitution. His first responsibility is to the Yoruba. Awo who was a mere regional premier and Ahmadu Bello who rejected the option of becoming the Prime Minister in order to serve his people today live in the hearts of their people.

    hen you throw a stone into a pool of water, in a matter of seconds, the stone disappears but that is not the end of your action, as ripples will appear and will take some time before the surface of the water is calm.

    This is exactly the matter with the Ekiti State gubernatorial election held since June 2014 where Ayodele Fayose was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and was consequently sworn in as governor on October 16, 2014. The controversy surrounding the victory of Governor Fayose has refused to go away 21 months after the election.

    The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) not satisfied with the result of the election, especially as its candidate did not win in any of the 16 local governments contrary to the expectations of many bookmakers and APC supporters, took the matter to court. The party exhausted all legal options but the victory of Fayose was upheld by the Supreme Court.

    Despite the affirmation of Fayose’s victory by the apex court, the APC leaders and supporters are yet to overcome the shock of that unusual defeat. It was not the APC alone that was shocked; the PDP was equally shocked by the magnitude of that defeat. This was attested to by Dipo Anisulowo, current Chief of Staff to Fayose when he said: “We are surprised by this victory. Though we were expecting victory but not of this magnitude.”

    Such was the nature of Fayose’s victory that has endlessly set tongues wagging. Many analysts adduced reasons for Fayemi’s loss and Fayose’s victory but none was convincing that an incumbent with unassailable record of performance while in office could lose with such a wide margin to someone with unenviable antecedents such that his first tenure as governor was abruptly aborted.

    In February 2015, eight months after the election was conducted, the mystery behind the outcome of the election began to unfold. Army Captain Sagir Koli released an audio tape he secretly recorded at a meeting he attended with his boss before the election. The recording, which is now famously referred to as the Ekitigate audio tape, is all about the graphic details of how to rig the June 21 election perfected by Fayose and other PDP chieftains, including then Defence Minister, Musiliu Obanikoro; Police Affairs Minister, Jelili Adesiyan; Senator Iyiola Omisore, Commander of 132 Artillery Brigade, Akure, Brigadier-General Momoh; with Capt. Sagir Koli and one Hon. Abdukareem.

    One important revelation from the audio tape by Fayose himself is the one that concerns INEC as an umpire and it has been a cause of worry to many ever since.  Fayose’s excerpts in the tape: “…today we agreed on how to work, myself and Omisore and all the heads. We agreed on a strategy to use, and the men that would join us and all you expect me to do, I have done….”Today, they went to Efon, they carried all the…where we are supposed to be collating. I think it was this man, the thing INEC gave to us, soft copies we now printed and everything, because they see INEC thing on top of it….

    ”He now told me, why is my contact man not with them?” I convinced this man (General Momoh) to leave these men. It took me more than two hours to get this man to release these people. We have been subjected to serious embarrassment.”

    That was Fayose harassing Brigadier Momoh for arresting a vehicle with printed materials collected from INEC on its way to Efon where Fayose said collation took place and this was two days to the election proper.

    Fayose, a gubernatorial candidate at that time, admitting to electoral fraud by copying voting materials provided by the INEC calls for serious concern and should have elicited probe by INEC if the organisation is not to be adjudged guilty of the conspiracy of silence. This costly revelation by Fayose who didn’t know he was being recorded is too grave to be ignored. It is surprising that since Fayose made this revelation in that audio tape, INEC has been unusually silent. If INEC feigns ignorance that it didn’t listen to the tape nor read it in the newspapers, it cannot claim ignorance of the latest revelations by one of the principal actors who was the PDP state secretary at that time, Dr. Tope Aluko, who bared it all on Channels TV.

    Aluko corroborated most revelations in the audio tape and confirmed that the tape was real and added a new one not in the audio that INEC officials in Ekiti and Osun states collected N1 billion from the Presidency without the knowledge of the then INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega. Such an amount of money could only be a bribe and that was enough to compromise the election.

    Fayose’s aide, Lere Olayinka, had earlier denied that it was his boss’ voice that was in the audio but Fayose himself admitted it was his voice. Among the documents presented on live television by Aluko was a request for extra result sheets and this confirmed that the soft copies of materials collected from INEC according to Fayose are sensitive materials such as ballot papers, result sheets and analysis of results sheets.

    One of the grounds of the APC’s petition at the tribunal was that the ballot papers used for the election were photo-chromic papers such that it didn’t reflect  true votes as the paper is water marked and hence capable of manipulating votes. This was dismissed by the tribunal for lack of proof.

    Even at that, the audio revelation, which was recently corroborated by Aluko, has put INEC on the spot as its officials cannot be excused from the electoral heist. My main worry is that the main benefactor has confessed and INEC has not denied it didn’t give the candidate sensitive materials.

    One would have expected that since the damning Ekitigate revelations, the REC and his officials should have been placed under investigation, but this is not the case. It is a case of the more you look, the less you see.

    In this serious revelation, all INEC senior officials who were in Ekiti during the election such as National Commissioners, the visiting Resident Electoral Commissioners and the local INEC staff are all culpable. Even though Aluko tried to exonerate Prof. Jega in the whole saga, once INEC as an institution is guilty, the whole INEC is guilty, including Jega.

    It behoves on civil society organisations, election monitors, international observers and the discerning public to ask INEC the following questions:

    Why did INEC give one of the candidates soft copies of the sensitive materials? Did INEC also give the materials to other candidates?

    Why has INEC not instituted any probe into the role of its officials during that election after the revelations by Fayose in the audio tape and corroborated by Aluko recently?

    Is it true that some INEC officials in Ekiti and Osun states received N1 billion without Jega’s knowledge?  Was the money official? If not, what was it meant for?

    Why has INEC not told us if it actually released soft copies of materials as claimed by one of the candidates at that time, Ayo Fayose who was later declared winner? Is it true as claimed by Fayose that collation of an election which was conducted on June 21 actually took place in Efon on June 19, two days to the conduct of the actual election? Did INEC officials take part in that collation? Were the representatives of other candidates present at the Efon collation? What was actually collated?

    Answers to the above questions will go a long way in restoring confidence in INEC as an impartial umpire as against the present perception of INEC as a partisan organisation always backing one party against the other during elections.

    Edo and Ondo elections are coming and we don’t know if these mafia are still in INEC to release soft copies of sensitive materials to a favoured candidate.

     

    • Bamitale, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Benin-City.

  • Ekitigate: APC urges IGP to prosecute Fayose

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has called on the Inspector -General of Police, Solomon Arase, to prosecute Governor Ayo Fayose and some police officers named in the alleged criminal manipulation of the June 21, 2014 governorship election in the state.

    The police officers the APC wants the IGP to investigate are Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Bala Nasarawa, former Ekiti Mobile Police (MOPOL) Commander, Gabriel Selenkere and others

    In a petition signed by the APC chairman in the state, Olajide Awe and made available to reporters in Ado Ekiti, the party requested Arase to investigate the roles of the police in the alleged poll fraud with specific investigation of AIG Nasarawa, who headed the police contingents that supervised the election.

    The party called for  Selenkere’s prosecution because of his alleged unprofessional conduct bordering on dishonesty and violations of the code of ethics of the Nigerian Police Force.

     

  • Ekitigate: Monarchs deny rift with Fayose

    Ekitigate: Monarchs deny rift with Fayose

    The Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers has denied any rift with Governor Ayo Fayose over his feud with the embattled Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Tope Aluko, who blew the whistle on the alleged rigging of the June 21, 2014 governorship poll.

    The monarchs, at an emergency meeting yesterday at their council chambers in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, denied an online publication, alleging that Fayose compelled them through his Chief of Staff, Dipo Anisulowo, to write a joint communiqué to condemn Aluko’s expose on Ekitigate.

    According to them, the online publication mentioned the names of specific monarchs described as “the arrowhead of the anti-Governor Fayose stance”.

    The report, which has since gone viral on social media, was described by the monarchs as “libelous”.

    They demanded an immediate retraction of the publication and a published apology.

    The monarchs described the content of the said publication as a “blatant lie, a fabrication arising from the imagination of the writer and a deliberate attempt to smear the image of the traditional rulers”.

    The Chairman of the Council and the Ologotun of Ogotun Ekiti, Oba Samuel Oladapo Oyebade, who read a prepared speech without entertaining questions from reporters, admitted that it was true that they met on February 16 but the meeting was not attended by Anisulowo or any government official.

    Oyebade warned that traditional rulers should not be dragged into murky waters of politics under any guise.

    He said: “We note that the said online publication names specific traditional rulers as arrowhead of anti-Fayose’s stance.

    “Council says unequivocally that the content of that publication was a blatant lie, a fabrication arising from the imagination of the writer.

    “It was also a deliberate attempt to smear the image of the traditional rulers and pitch the government and the council against each other.”

    “It is true that a meeting of traditional rulers was held on February 16 but the meeting was never attended by Mr Dipo Anisulowo or any government official as quoted in the online publication.

    “We, therefore, say without mincing words that there is a cordial relationship between the government of Mr Ayodele Fayose and the traditional council. It is therefore our opinion that the publication was meant to embarrass our members.

    “Ekiti Council of Obas will not allow the traditional institution to be dragged into the murky water of politics.”

  • Ekitigate: APC writes AGF, demands review of guber poll

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has written the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), seeking a review of the June 21, 2014 governorship election and the prosecution of those accused of manipulating the poll.

    The party which described the alleged poll fraud as “extraordinary shame of the nation and unprecedented in Nigeria’s electoral history,” maintained that the action of those indicted amounted to serious breach of the Constitution and Electoral Act.

    In the petition endorsed by APC Chairman in Ekiti, Olajide Awe, a copy of which was made available to reporters in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday, the party said the alleged fraud was a “criminal manipulation of the electoral process” insisting that all the personalities indicted must not go unpunished.

    Awe contended that the review of the matter had become imperative in national interest and to prevent a cycle of politicians that could seize the reins of government through treason.

    He said the petition which was the third to be forwarded to the office of the AGF was precipitated by the recent confessions on Channels Television by the Peoples Democratic Party secretary in Ekiti, Dr. Temitope Aluko, published and broadcast on other electric and print media.

  • Ekitigate

    Ekitigate

    •Justice from the military front. But what of the civilian instigators? •Justice from the military front. But what of the civilian instigators?

    At last, it is justice for the deeds and misdeeds of some military personnel in the 2014 elections in Ekiti and Osun states. From that exercise emerged the Ekiti audio recording, which captured voices feuding over measures they had put in place to rig both elections.

    Aside from the military personnel, voices of civilian instigators, captured in the audio tape, were those of Ayo Fayose, then candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but now Ekiti governor, Iyiola Omisore, then PDP candidate for Osun but who lost to incumbent Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, Musiliu Obanikoro, then Minister of State for Defence (Army), and Jelili Adesiyan, then Minister of Police Affairs.

    Aside, reference was made to Chris Uba, an Anambra State political kingpin, who was alleged to have “imported” troops into Ekiti, to help fix the polls. He was in Ekiti too, though his voice was not captured in the tape.

    The military high command deserves high praise for rewarding the brave deeds of a conscientious and courageous officer. By secretly recording the subversive session, he risked his commission to expose the brazen politicisation of the military under President Goodluck Jonathan.  Had Jonathan got a second term, the scandal would not only have been buried, that brave officer would have lost his commission as a “deserter” — and probably his life.

    It is, therefore, all thanks to the Major-General Adeniyi Oyebade-chaired Nigerian Army probing board for recommending the officer’s reinstatement; and Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Tukur Buratai, for accepting. That should bolster good and professional conduct among our service men (and women), particularly when unscrupulous politicians tempt them to subvert their service oath of absolute loyalty to the Nigerian state.

    The Oyebade board, which took evidence from 23 officers, over 100 soldiers and 62 civilians, recommended far-reaching sanctions: two officers for compulsory retirement, three others to lose their command and yet another for prosecution, for collecting bribe to help rig the election.  Besides, 15 officers were placed on a watch list, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was to further investigate nine others for alleged sleaze, 62 others (mostly from Majors and below) were to earn letters of displeasure from the Army and to appear before their different General Officers Commanding (GOC) for special bouts of counselling.

    This dire hall of shame put in bold perspective the brazen subversion of military ethos, for crass partisan motives, under President Jonathan. Partisans of the former president all but captured the military as the enforcing arm of the ruling party. Such ultra-criminal politicisation of the military should never be tolerated again. The former president has earned perpetual infamy for his crass opportunism: tolerating such alarming criminality, capable of destroying the military, because of temporary but illicit partisan gain.

    Now that the military has done its bit, what happens to Obanikoro and company?

    Mr. Obanikoro abused the privilege of his high office, aside from wilfully subverting free polls, the very essence of democracy that gifted him his high office.  The same, Mr. Adesiyan was guilty of.  A high official of state should not be party to such rascality.  As for Mr. Fayose, who is now governor because he “won” that controversial poll, he should eternally bury his head in shame, were Nigeria a saner clime. But he has since moved on to higher profanities for, by Nigerian law, after exhausting post-election adjudication, no one can touch him. Yet, he is such a blight on the high office of governor.  The pair of Messrs Omisore and Uba are a symbol of the ugly but systemic hustling that gives Nigerian politics its notoriety.

    The civilian ensemble indicted in this scandal should be further investigated, prosecuted and punished.  We must make the point and strongly too: felonious conduct would not be tolerated, from anyone, in future polls.

  • Buhari has no hand in military probe of Ekitigate – Fayemi

    Buhari has no hand in military probe of Ekitigate – Fayemi

    The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has absolved President Muhammadu Buhari of involvement in the military inquiry into the alleged use of soldiers to manipulate the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State.

    Fayemi, said the decision to probe soldiers’ conduct during the election was taken by the military high command and not by Buhari as alleged by Governor Ayo Fayose during a recent press briefing in Lagos.

    Appearing on a special interview programme on ADABA 88.9 FM, Akure, monitored by our reporter on Saturday evening, Fayemi described Fayose’s allegation that Buhari was planning to unseat him with the military probe as an “eruption of an infantile mind.”

    The former Ekiti governor regretted that Fayose runs a “trial-and-error government” and a “government of lottery” noting that his successor never prepared for the serious business of governance hence the alleged “reduction of governance to comedy.”

    Fayemi also expressed confidence that the result of the last local government election in the state won’t stand the test of legal scrutiny as his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has gone to the Court of Appeal to seek the nullification of the council poll.

    He appealed to the people of the state to exercise patience under the alleged misrule and anti-people policies being forced down their throat by the Fayose regime, assuring that things will be better for them in the nearest future.

    He said all segments of Ekiti population have now seen the alleged insensitivity of the current government in the imposition of higher taxes and the governor personally leading task force to harass market women and seize their goods.

    Reacting to Fayose’s claim that the military probe of the alleged misuse of soldiers for electoral fraud was targeted at him (Fayose), Fayemi said the erring soldiers were not be probed on their involvement in Ekiti election alone but in other states like Osun, Rivers and Abia.

    He said: “The Fayose’s allegation is rubbish and so typical of him to reduce everything to his own imagination. To the best of my knowledge, President Buhari is no longer a military ruler.

    “But if the military in its wisdom decides to investigate the role of soldiers in elections in Osun, Ekiti, Rivers and Abia, what has that got to do with President Buhari or the Federal Executive Council?

    “He (Fayose) is only trying to draw attention to himself. He wants a response and nobody has responded to him either at party level or governmental level.

    “This is an eruption of an infantile mind, we don’t want to dignify him with any response on what he has been saying about President Buhari.”

  • Ekitigate: You can’t escape Justice, APC tells Fayose

    Ekitigate: You can’t escape Justice, APC tells Fayose

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has responded to Governor Ayodele Fayose’s allegations in his press conference in Lagos purporting that APC was planning to illegally use the Supreme Court to upturn his mandate in favour of the party.

    The party accused the governor of blackmail, saying his fraudulent and pre-emptive tactics will not stop justice from taking its course in the resolution of the biggest electoral fraud in the history of Nigeria.

    Publicity Secretary of APC, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said in a statement that Fayose’s alleged fraudulent attempt to draw the support of the international community to poll fraud was an impish attempt to legitimise fraud, stressing that the same international community had since realized that world leaders were also victims of Fayose and Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) fraud by misleading them in Fayose’s electoral victory in Ekiti State.

    “Even though the international community declared that Ekiti poll that produced Fayose was fair, the same world leaders have since changed their position after listening to Ekiti poll fraud tape as secretly recorded by Captain Sagir Koli detailing how Fayose and PDP leaders rigged the election, including Fayose himself talking in the tape on how he collected INEC soft copies and got them printed to win the election,” Olatunbosun explained.

    He added that the governor was running away from his shadow after failed bids to beg President Muhammadu Buhari who he abuses daily.

    “Why did Fayose try to pressurize members of the Military Panel to rescue him? After his emissaries returned empty-handed in their failed bids to achieve their aims, Fayose has now resorted to blackmail, accusing the President of trying to destroy democracy and we wonder who among him and the President is the enemy of democracy.

    “This is the man that sacked the court and beat up a judge. This is a man that used seven members to impeach a Speaker and closed the House of Assembly against 19 members of the Assembly for six months. This is a man that ran all opposition politicians out of town during elections and launched relentless attacks on opposition candidates during election,” Olatunbosun said.

    He said Fayose should explain to Nigerians and the international community what he meant in the Ekiti poll fraud tape where he said he collected INEC soft copies that he printed to win his election.

    He said: “Besides declaring in the tape that he collected INEC soft copies that he printed, Fayose also said in the tape that a collation was done days before the election in Efon-Alaye and we want to ask whether Efon-Alaye was the collation centre for Ekiti governorship election and whether it is not a fraud to collate the result of an election that had not been held.

    “If a criminal case that is taken to court and the court assumes jurisdiction to try that criminal case is what Fayose would call illegality and destruction of democracy, is it printing INEC soft copies and collation of results days to the election that is legal and a boost to the practice of democracy in Nigeria?”

    The party said no amount of crocodile tears shed from one television house to the other and blackmail of the ruling party would make him escape justice in the resolution of Ekiti State election fraud.