The Media Office of the Ekiti State Governor-Elect, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has dismissed the report of the observer groups slated for publication on Wednesday as a concoction fabricated and facilitated by the Ekiti State Government to discredit the July 14, 2018 election that returned Fayemi as the winner.
A report purportedly by observer groups had on Tuesday been circulating in the media dismissing the election as falling short of international standard, such that the election could not be recommended as a benchmark for a future credible election.
But a statement by Wole Olujobi of the Kayode Fayemi Media Office dismissed the report as a product of fraud masterminded by Ekiti State Government to discredit the election in which Deputy Governor Olusola Kolapo Eleka lost to the candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
Olujobi said: “We have noted the fraud contained in the so-called observers group report and we condemn the desperation that stoke that sponsored report to diminish the standard of the Saturday election, which a more credible observer group, Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), had earlier hailed as credible poll, applauding INEC, security and voters for conducting themselves in acceptable manner to produce credible election.
“We were privy to the earlier press conference where the observer groups were to give a fair assessment of the entire electoral process, but the process was hijacked by the state government, which locked a motley crowd of supporters in a room in the Government House where media houses under retainership of the state government were the only ones present to report the proceedings of the so-called press conference.
“In the so-called press conference, only two television stations under retainership of Ekiti Government and a reporter of a Lagos-based publication were present. The report that purportedly emerged as scripted in the so-called press conference was forwarded to other media houses, which innocently resorted to processing the story for wider broadcast and publication to mislead the Nigerian public as authentic observers group’s report on the election.
“In the warped report, there was a preponderance of conflicting presentation of facts of the election. Instances abound where security agents were praised for a job well done and the next moment, security agents were accused of menacing voters.
“Most striking was the statement in the so-called report that as early as 6am on July 14, voting had commenced at voting centres, among other fabrications to discredit the election as flawed.
“We know that all these were made up to discredit the process that produced Fayemi as governor-elect, but we advise that instead of discrediting the election, the candidate of PDP has a legal option at the tribunal to raise any legitimate issues he has against the process leading to Fayemi’s election.”