The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Ekiti State, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, and his Social Democratic Party (SDP) counterpart, Engr. Segun Oni, were last night locked in a war of words, heightening tension ahead of today’s election.
Oni accused the APC, which is the ruling party in the state, of intimidating its supporters. The APC dismissed the allegation as a lie.
Security agents went round the major streets of the state capital, Ado Ekiti, yesterday in a signal to potential trouble makers to think twice while the police announced a restriction on vehicular movement from 12 a.m. to 6 p.m. today.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said everything was in place to have a successful election.
Engineer Oni, during a press conference in Ado Ekiti, accused the APC of unlawful arrest and intimidation of SDP supporters for the purpose of demobilising them ahead of the polls.
This, according to him, was a breach of the peace agreement initiated by the Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar-led National Peace Commission.
Oni said rather than adhering strictly to the democratic tenets and ethos in the conduct of the governorship poll, those he described as “oppressors” had been unleashing terror on his supporters with fake soldiers.
He cited the case of one of his supporters who “was arrested and detained for alleged kidnapping three days back, using a section of the police.”
“I will keep to the peace accord. But peace can only be absolutely protected when you are standing on justice, equity, truth and fair-play,” he said.
“But when you are kidnapping people, it renders every peace document invalid. Let us tell them not to set this state on fire.
“Those who had been going round to kidnap my supporters should be called to order now. They are testing the patience and tolerance of the people.
“They shouldn’t set this state on fire. If anybody commits offence and they think they are the authorities to go round and be arresting people at night, then the peace accord becomes shattered immediately,” he said.
He asked INEC and the security agencies to shun partisanship and provide a level playing for all candidates.
But the Director of Media and Publicity, Biodun Oyebanji Campaign Organisation, Hon. Taiwo Olatunbosun, dismissed the SDP allegation, describing it as malicious and puerile.
He said Oni resorted to cheap lies to gain public sympathy preparatory to the election, having realised that the majority of Ekiti people had abandoned his ambition for Oyebanji.
Olatunbosun said the SDP were “trying to get unnecessary attention. If they know that they don’t have candidates who can win election, they should quit the race. They should stop all these unnecessary insinuations and assumptions.
“SDP should stop chasing shadow. Are they saying APC is a security agent or agency? APC is not Police, DSS, and Civil Defence, so why are they accusing us of arrest of their supporters?
Army, Police, Amotekun in show of force in Ekiti
Armed soldiers, policemen and operatives of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and those of the Ekiti State Security Network codenamed ‘Amotekun’ yesterday patrolled the major streets of Ado Ekiti in Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) in a show of force ahead of the governorship election in the state.
Gun-wielding security operatives were also deployed in strategic parts of the city and public buildings including the state secretariat of INEC.
The patrol caused major traffic logjams along the old Ado-Iyin Road, Federal Poly-Ijan-Ekiti, Ado-Akure, Ado-Ilawe roads all in Ado-Ekiti, and some streets in Ikere-Ekiti, the largest town in the state.
Police Inspector General Usman Akali Baba said the show of force was meant to alert residents to the security agencies’ readiness for the election.
Baba, in a statement through the police chief in charge of the governorship poll and Deputy Inspector General, Johnson Kokumo, equally announced a restriction on the movement of vehicles from 12 am on Saturday to 6pm for the conduct of the election.
“In view of the forthcoming governorship election in Ekiti, the Inspector General of Police through Deputy Inspector General of Police, Force CID and DIG for Southwest, who is the election security Commander for the Ekiti State gubernatorial election, DIG Johnson Kokumo, wishes to inform the people of Ekiti State that the Nigeria Police Force has mobilised all necessary assets in partnership with other security agencies to provide adequate security and ensure free, fair and credible election,” the police said in the statement.
The statement added: “The Inspector General of Police equally ordered the restriction of vehicular movements within the State, particularly along the entry and exit points to Ekiti State with effect from 12:00am of Saturday 18th June, 2022 to 6:00pm by 6:00pm of same date.
“To this end, operatives of the Nigeria Police Force and the military as well as other security agencies have been deployed across the state borders to enforce the restriction order to the letter and ensure criminal minded individuals do not infiltrate into the State and cause mayhem during, before and after the election.
The Inspector General assured residents of adequate security for all to come out en masse and vote for the candidates of their choice without fear of harassment and harassment.
“The IGP hereby assures the public of the Force readiness to perform its statutory duty of protection of lives and properties of law abiding citizens of Ekiti State State throughout the period of the election and beyond while calling on everyone to support and cooperate with the operatives deployed and ensure prompt report of any suspicious person or group of persons to the nearest Police Station or call the following numbers:
Joint Situation Room: 09021198809 or 07059119144 and Control Room: 08062335577”, he added.
No fewer than 17,000 police personnel and about 10,000 from the NSCDC alone are on duty for the period of the election.
Observers are of the view that the election will be a straight fight between Oyebanji, Oni and Olabisi Kolawole of the PDP.
INEC: We’re ready, BVAS will perform optimally
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) pledged yesterday that it was set for a free and fair election today.
The agency’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily that over 980,000 residents have been captured in the commission’s voters’ register but less than 200,000 of the figure were expected at the polling units.
“As of today, we have a total of 988,923 voters on the voters’ register,” Okoye said. “This is the number that will vote during this governorship election.
“Of this number, as of the 13th day of June 2022, 749,065 have collected their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs). So, we are ready for this particular election, and every PVC that has not been collected will be mopped up and kept in safe custody pending the conclusion of the election.”
The commission, he said, had deployed more Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the exercise compared to the number of polling units where the election will take place.
He said: “In any polling unit where we have more than 750 registered voters, we are going to deploy an additional BVAS to those polling areas,” the INEC national commissioner said. “We have a total of 2,445 polling units that will be used for this election, but we have deployed a total of 3,346 BVAS to Ekiti State. So, we are going to have redundancies in every registration area.
“We have also trained enough registration area technical assistants who can intervene at very short notice if there is any challenge with the BVAS. From the test runs we have done, we are confident that the BVAS will perform optimally and that every person who is genuinely and legally registered to vote in this election will have an opportunity of exercising his/her right.”
