Former Governor of Ekiti State and the All Progressives Congress(APC) governorship candidate for the July 14 election, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has accused some top officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) of conniving with Governor Ayodele Fayose to rig the coming election.
The former Minister accused three top INEC functionaries from Abuja of holding a secret meeting with governor Fayose in the government house some days back under the guise of being in the state for official duty.
Fayemi urged the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris and the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr Lawan Daura to investigate the allegation and bring the culprit to book.
But INEC Public Relations Officer in Ekiti, Taiwo Gbadegesin, said the electoral body didn’t receive any official from Abuja, saying none of their officers visited the governor on any scheduled or emergency invitation.
Gbadegesin assured the people that INEC would conduct free, fair and credible election in Ekiti, saying the technology that had been put in place will make rigging difficult and unachievable.
Briefing newsmen in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, the Deputy Director General(Ekiti South), Kayode Fayemi’s campaign Council, Hon. Bamidele Faparusi , pointedly accused these three electoral officials named: Egharevba John, Festus Aisien, Igidiogu Kelechi and one Ishaku Abbo, a former INEC staff of conspiring to vitiate and compromise the process. . Fayemi said one Ishaku from the Northern extraction of the country, whom he alleged of brokering the deal on Fayose’s behalf , had allegedly been living in the government house in Ekiti in the last six months.
He said: “We have it on good authority that an election expert, one Ishaku, a former INEC official, has been living with the governor in the Government House since January this year.
“After these illegal activities in the Government House, there was a secret meeting held with three top officials of INEC from the national headquarters in the Government House.
“Curiously, these three top officials hold strategic positions in election management. One is from the Admin, one is from Stores and Distribution Dept while the other is ICT top official.
“For the reasons best known to them, only the Government House was their exclusive port of call; APC was never in the picture.
“After this evil agenda, Fayose stormed the media to raise allegations the APC was in Ondo State Government House to manipulate the ballot to give APC an edge in the July 14 election”.
Faparusi alleged that findings revealed that sensitive INEC documents have been illegally produced in the Government House with the help of some ‘unscrupulous’ INEC officials.
“Documents already produced include stamps, PVCs, result sheets (Form EC 8A) and INEC accreditation forms. We are calling on INEC headquarters to note these atrocities being perpetrated by its corrupt officials to tarnish the image of the electoral body.
“You will recall Fayose’s illegal activities in the 2014 election as contained in Captain Koli tape. We don’t want a repeat of that experience”, he concluded.
Debunking the allegations further, Gbadegesin said: “There is no form called accreditation form in the first place. accreditation will be done with smart card readers and the four staff mentioned are our staff but they have not visited Ekiti for any reason.
“Let me also tell the public that form EC8A is with the CBN and it will be deployed to Ekiti with ballot papers. They are coded with serial numbers and can’t be duplicated by anybody.
“As part of our openness, we sent the voter registers to all the political parties. Our doors are open to all political parties, so APC is free to come here and make verifications, rather than making unsubstantiated allegations.
“Our politicians should know that some of the INEC staff here are strangers, they should not make Ekiti look too peculiar and difficult terrain to work.
“But we want to say that this election will be credible. 2015 elections were superb and I want to assure that this election will be better”, Gbadegesin assured.
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