FOLLOWING the violent disruption of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primaries in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, on Saturday, the aspirants in the election have started trading blames on the cause of the violence that marred the election of the party’s candidate for the election.
Chief Segun Oni, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Mr. Bimbo Daramola, agent of Dr Kayode Fayemi all reacted separately to the development, on Sunday, but were unanimous in their call on the national leadership of the party to investigate the matter.
ONI:
Former Governor Oni, who described the disruption as “shameful”, said “what we displayed is a big shame. I don’t want to go into what happened in detail because it’s a culmination of a reaction to a propensity and a desperation to cheat.”
Oni, who spoke in Ifaki, said the national working committee of the party should step in to investigate the fiasco, saying some people were reacting, though I’m not saying that violent reaction is the right thing.
The ex-National Deputy Chairman (South ) said: “The NWC of the party owes all of us a thorough explanation of what happened. We can’t be doing democracy by fooling ourselves, they must not allow one of the aspirants to infiltrate. When you want to and the referee is nominated by your opponent, this is wrong. Some of us are angry because some people are fooling the system repeatedly.”
Oni, who lauded the chairman of the committee to conduct the election, Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State, however lamented that it was regrettable that some friends of one of the aspirants were allegedly appointed into the committee, which he said was one of the bones of contention.
“How would one feel to get to the field of play and find out that the referee was nominated by one of the teams? 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 secretary and 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 in the committee and how to prevent such in future, except that we are hiding under democracy to fool ourselves.
“Those who have penchant for cheating and fraud structured the primary to favour a particular aspirant. I was the APC National Deputy Chairman for nearly four years, yet I never used my position to influence anything about a primary I was directly involved. When you have penchant for fraud or to cheat the sytem, it makes democracy to look sour and uninteresting.”
OJUDU:
Senator Babafemi Ojudu was accused by the campaign team of Dr Kayode Fayemi, through a statement by Mr. Yinka Oyebode, of being the mastermind of the violence that marred the process, saying “it is quite painful seeing some desperate elements trying so much to rubbish the party we all laboured to build to national reckoning, out of share lust for power.
“If the quest for political position is to serve, then one wonders why the desperation being displayed by the likes of Femi Ojudu and Bimbo Daramola.
“Certainly the conduct of these desperate aspirants falls short of the minimum standards expected of anyone that professes progressive ideals.”
Ojudu, while reacting to the accusation said he could not have been the one desperate for power, since he was not the one that tried to compromise delegates, the security and the committee that was saddled with the responsibility of conducting the primaries.
Ojudu, in a statement through his Ekiti Rebirth Organisation (ERO) and signed by Chief Ranti Adebisi said: “Fayemi has been the candidate threatening violence since he joined the race last month. He threatened to cripple the state if not given the party ticket. He deployed security agents to intimidate delegates even during the conduct of the primaries.
“He is the aspirant that has been avoiding democratic test of popularity. The chronology of events that culminated into the stampede at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium, is known to the public as some of them were also captured on camera. Those videos are everywhere on the social media for everybody to see.
“Clearly, if there is anyone desperate, that person is Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the stakes are high for him as a former governor who lost his seat wholesale and as wobbled as a serving Minister. It is his degree of desperation has that caused the latest show of shame in Ekiti.
“Ojudu has no reason whatsoever to want the voting disrupted since we were projected to win. But we are appealing to our delegates and supporters across the state to remain calm.
“Fayemi came late into this very contest to realise that the boat has left the shore. He is now looking for any straw to hang unto. He was shocked to realise that his much advertisedhold on the state executive was a fluke. He was shocked that Ojudu was coasting home with a landslide so he has to haphazardly change from one rigging strategy to the other but Ekiti people are not fools.”
“We don’t support violence, our campaign doesn’t use thugs. We don’t use self-help. However, Ekiti people have made the statement loud and clear that they no longer want Fayemi. We are sure of our support base. If this election is conducted ten times Ojudu will win.”
Election must not be cancelled ―JFK campaign
Speaking on the disruption of the exercise on behalf of the John Kayode Fayemi (JKF) Campaign Organisation, the Mr. Samuel Abejide, who served as Dr Fayemi’s agent at the election, blamed the fracas on aspirants he claimed saw that they were losing the election and got angry.
Abejide, who addressed newsmen, said everything was well until some of the delegates, whose choice as the party’s candidate, sought help from the agent if Dr. Fayemi.
According to him, there was an earlier agreement among all the stakeholders that delegates who needed help, like the elderly ones and those who could not read or write, should invite the agent of the aspirant of their choice to help them.
He said when the other aspirants found that Dr Fayemi’s agent was repeatedly being called, they reacted by shouting no, and afterwards destroyed the ballot boxes and the ballot papers.
Abejide said: “They knew that Dr Fayemi was leading, that’s why they took that step. Otherwise, if they were leading as they claimed why are they calling for the cancellation of the election.
“I think a situation in which just two people can successfully disrupt a process in the presence of about 200 security agents, calls for questions. On our part, we could not have disrupted a process that we know would eventually favour us.”
The Fayemi campaign organisation demanded that the election should not be cancelled but should be continued from where it was stopped.
DARAMOLA:
Also reacting to the accusation that he was among those behind the disruption of the primary election, Mr. Bimbo Daramola denied that he was party to the disruption, saying “a lot of people still operate within the circumference of inordinate assumptions.”
Daramola said: “Not only that I totally condemn the unfortunate incident which I find reprehensible, something must have triggered that. That should be of interest to all beyond the press release where two paragraphs were devoted to tar me black!
“Having condemned this incident in strongest terms because of the remote and far reaching implications on our people, party and state have its about time to change the narrative if our pristine identity must be restored and this is the fulcrum on why i am in this race.
“For the press release that now describes me as a man driven by lust for power, it is a shock for ne that a man who has known me 40 years, a relationship that has witnessed so many episodic moments, some good, many bad and many unseen moments.
“I reiterate without mincing words and i am sure both the CPS and Minister know that its too late in the day for me to acquire an image that is not mine, i can bet it.
“The allegations are most unfounded.”