Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has raised the alarm, alleging a plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the July 14 governorship election in the state.
Governor Fayose said the APC had allegedly perfected plans with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to both manipulate the election, as well as disenfranchise 50 per cent of the electorate.
Fayose alleged that the 50 per cent of the electorate would be disenfranchised by preloading the smart cards readers and release ballot papers to members of APC to justify their action.
He said: “It has come to our attention that APC in Ekiti State has devised another sinister plot to disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters in areas considered as strongholds of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), particularly where the PDP standard bearer comes from, which is Ikere-Ekiti.”
But the APC too, in a statement on Tuesday, countered the governor, alleging that Fayose had “liaisons with the State Coordinator of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) to compromise the July 14, 2018 governorship election,” and demanded the immediate transfer of the state coordinator from the state to guarantee a credible poll.
APC in a petition by its Secretary, Mr. Paul Omotosho, to the Director General of NYSC, alleged that there were “mutual liaisons in night meetings” between Fayose and the coordinator, saying “the alarm became imperative to save the July 14 governorship poll from the compromise that can spark bloody clashes.”
Omotosho said: “We would not have raised any issues if the relationship between the governor and your coordinator in Ekiti State were to be based on private mutual respect, but when that relationship compromises her office with potential grave injuries to a party in a political contest, issues must be raised to avert avoidable bloody crisis.
“We have it on good authority that your coordinator in Ekiti State has been having liaisons with Governor Fayose since she assumed office in Ekiti State resorting in her regular visits to his office and regularly travels with the governor outside the state.”
Governor Fayose had said: “The APC is working in collaboration with some unscrupulous elements in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delete not less than 40 percent names from the Voter Register, using the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) as a decoy and targeting Ado Ekiti, the State capital and Ikere Ekiti where the PDP candidate comes from.
“The APC did not stop at this; they are currently distributing fake Empowerment Forms and cash to the unsuspecting electorate, using a phoney organisation, with the aim of deactivating Voters Cards, thereby disenfranchising thousands of voters.”
He further alleged that “they are also putting pressure on INEC to use Incident Forms as an alternative to the Smart Card Readers, so as to be able to rig the July 14 election.”
The governor said “it should be noted that the Incident Forms, being contemplated for Ekiti were not used during the Anambra election. The question is: Why the plan to use it in Ekiti?”