Observers under the aegis of the Nigerian Human Rights Community have insisted that the All Progressives Congress, (APC) gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, won the Ekiti State gubernatorial election free and fair.
At a press conference in Lagos on Friday, addressed by the observers led by Taiwo Adeleye, where the group presented preliminary reports, the group said the election was associated with hitches but not enough to invalidate the victory of APC at the poll.
The NHRC was established in 2003 as a coalition of many community-based groups across the country.
The media event was attended by several observers of the Ekiti State election.
The NHRC regretted the status of human rights work is being distorted by the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, who it accused of raising a coterie of false and emergency human right groups and observers with preconceived aim of supporting Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate.
The group said there were obvious cases of political parties’ involvement in corruption but that it is mischievous to blame the outcome of the election on that note.
It said in Ekiti State, the ring leader of electoral manipulation was Fayose.
The group said: “Since 2014, Mr. Fayose has been distributing cash – public funds – to individuals on the streets amongst who are voters. It has become a day-to-day function of the Ekiti state Governor and its officials to distribute cash to people on the streets. There is nothing behind this than a conscious attempt to buy votes. Most of these cases were reported in the mainstream and social media where Mr. Fayose was openly distributing cash to people on the streets.
“In Ekiti, workers were paid N3,000 on the eve of the election as bribe so that they could vote for Prof. Eleka. This is a well-known fact. He also paid N7,000 each to pensioners on the eve of the July 14 election. The cash paid was not listed as part of their legal entitlements but as inducements to ensure they voted for the PDP. There can be no clearer evidence of election malpractices that this. Under the Ekiti State Governor, manipulation of elections through cash inducement is a directive principle of the state which has been entrenched in the state’s convention through the framework of stomach infrastructure.
“We monitored the election. Many of us here were in Ekiti as monitors. We were in Ekiti two weeks before the election, gathering information and monitoring pre-election activities. It was easy for many of us to predict the outcome of the election even before INEC released the results on Sunday morning. We have gathered here to set the records straight and to present the issues the way they are in the most factual manner.”
The group said the turn out during the election was impressive.
It said: “Ekiti has 842,731 registered voters. This number shortly before the election increased to about 900,000. This is quite commendable considering the total population of the entire state which is 2.7 million people. Out of the figures, 667,064 PVCs were collected while 246,270 PCVs were not collected. There are 177 wards in 131 towns and villages located in 16 local governments. The number of voters represent about 65 percent of the voting age which is one of the highest in the country.”
On security, it said the security operatives performed above average.
It said: “There were no incidences of police or soldiers’ harassment, intimidation or human rights violations, prior or throughout the one day exercise. Even though 30,000 security operatives were posted to Ekiti state, their conducts and performances represent a remarkable improvement compared with 2014 when soldiers invaded Ekiti State, arrested the members of the All Progressives Party, and ensured many of them were not released until after the election.”
It said in a comparative sense, there was tremendous improvement in security.
It said: “We should not be quick to forget that in 2014, militants in military uniforms invaded Ekiti State under the guise of security operatives shooting indiscriminately across the state.
“The current Governor elect, Dr Kayode Fayemi in 2014, was shot at. The bullets hit an APC member who died on the spot. We should not forget that in Osun, soldiers invaded the house of the sitting Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and insisted on entering his bedroom. In 2014, Osun and Ekiti witnessed the deaths of 7 people during the gubernatorial elections. But this year 2018, no single person was killed in Ekiti State. This is quite commendable.
“The idea of allowing voters to be accredited and vote at the same time was remarkable. There were few cases of malfunctioning machines, but these were not significant. It should be observed that in many polling booths, the INEC isolated the elderly, breast feeding mothers and the sick allowing them to vote first. We commend the efforts of the INEC staff for this unique improvement in the voting standards when compared with what was obtained in the previous years.”
The NHRC also made the following recommendations:
· Political parties should adopt Direct primaries. This will enable mass participation of party members in the selection of candidates for the various elective positions.
· That to eliminate corruption in the electoral system, the ballot boxes should be kept far away from the voters so that the decision of each voter will be known only to the voter.
· That Federal Government should demonstrate the needed strong political will to be able implement the recommendations of the Justice Uwais Panel which recommended Electoral Tribunals for election malpractices offenders.
· Ekiti state needs more polling booths. In many instances voters had to be transported for over 4 kilometers before they could vote.