Soldiers attached to a check point at Itawure Junction near Efon-Alaye in Ekiti State on Thursday arrested three men with a truck conveying election materials.
The Brigade Commander, 32 Artillery Brigade, Akure, Brig.-Gen. Aliyu Momoh, who spoke with journalists on the incident, said his men at a checkpoint stopped the men who could not provide satisfactory answers to questions posed to them by the soldiers.
Those arrested with the Mercedes Benz truck marked Lagos APP 952 XL are Olufemi Ose, Segun Akanbi and Biodun Erinfolami.
The vehicle bears the inscription of Adewole F Odunayo Enterprises on its sides.
Materials found in the vehicle included ballot papers, rubber stamps, ink pads, reflective jackets bearing the Independent National Electoral Commission among others.
The rubber stamps and ink pads bore 2014, but some of the ballot papers bore 2007 election and 2009 rerun governorship election marks.
Gen. Momoh, who warned against any attempt to cause trouble in the state, said his men were not in the state to harass or molest anybody,
He added “We are not here to intimidate or harass anybody, but we want to sound a note of warning that whoever thinks he can cause trouble will be dealt with severely.
“You only need to have your voter card and use your thumb to print the appropriate area on the ballot paper, whoever goes to the voting unit with any offensive weapon would be brought dowm.”
One of the arrested men, Olufemi Ose, said he was contacted by somebody in Lagos to help convey beans to Akure and that it was there that another person asked him to come over to Ado-Ekiti to come and help him convey some waste items.
“We got here yesterday and a vehicle was loaded before ours started loading in the early hours of Thursday.”
When contacted, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Halilu Pai, described the fake ballot papers as waste items.
He added “Those materials are what we call waste papers that have been auctioned to people. The materials were approved for the firm to cart away for us to prepare for the coming election. The company has the approval of the national headquarters of INEC.”
On the presence of rubber stamps and ink pads for the 2014 poll in the materials, Pai said there was no way they could have been there.
The REC said his office got approval from Abuja on April 3, this year to auction the materials and blamed the firm that got the job for coming late to pick them.
He also denied any compromise on the part of INEC and its staff.
Pai added that INEC did not think it necessary to inform security agencies on the movement of the materials.
But political parties and their candidates have started accusing one another over complicity in the matter.
While the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has called for a full-scale investigation into the importation of fake ballot papers into the state allegedly by the All Progressives Congress, saying; “The arrest of a truck loaded with ballot papers at Ita-Awure by soldiers is a vindication of our stand that the APC was planning to rig the election.”
“At about 11am today, soldiers on Ita Awure – Ilesha road arrested a truck with inscription “Adewole F. Odunayo Enterprises,” together three occupants of the truck.
In a release issued by the Director General of the Ayo Fayose Campaign Organisation (AFCO), Chief Dipo Anisulowo, the governorship candidate said; “It is curious that two commissioners in the state swiftly rushed to where the truck was arrested to intervene and get it freed with the occupants.”
Fayose, who commended the soldiers for refusing the overtures of the two state commissioners, demanded that; “There must be no cover-up of this heinous crime.
“Since the vehicle is marked, the public must know who is the owner of Adewole F. Odunayo Enterprises is, those behind the production of the ballot papers, their possible collaborators in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the purpose for which the ballot papers were produced.
“We are also interested in the motive behind the visit to the scene of arrest by two state commissioners, and the reasons the State Deputy Governor, Prof Modupe Adelabu rushed to the Army Base, where the fake ballot papers in the truck were being off-loaded.
“Most importantly, we urge our party members and supporters to remain vigilant, because at it is, the APC has seen that it can only win the election through manipulations, having been rejected by the people.”
Also, the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation has called for a thorough investigation into the controversy surrounding intercepted INEC voting materials in Ekiti State on Thursday.
In a statement by the spokesperson, Dimeji Daniels, the organisation said though INEC claims they were waste which auction was sanctioned by its national headquarters, it remained curious that 2014 stamps were found among the materials.
While briefing journalists on the intercepted materials, Brigadier-General Aliyu Momoh, whose men intercepted the voting materials had said there was 2014 stamp on some of the materials.
The spokesperson of the Fayemi Campaign Organisation urged security agencies to be on the lookout for agents of rigging who are bent on reversing the progress that had been witnessed under the Fayemi administration.
“APC does not have the culture of rigging. We know many plans are being put in motion and hatched by the opposition to rig this election because the opposition knows it is not popular and not on ground at all. This is why no stone should be left unturned in preventing agents of retrogression from taking Ekiti back 100 years.
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