Violence, vote buying and other irregularities tainted the Saturday’s governorship election in Ekiti State conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

DAILY POST reports that electorates in about 2,445 polling units in the 16 local government areas of the state turned out on Saturday to elect their new governor.

Ekiti has 1,059,360 registered voters, but only 1,028,929 of them who collected Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, were eligible to participate in the poll held in the polling units spread across the 177 wards of the 16 local government areas in the South-west state.

While the turnout for the election in which candidates of 14 parties jostled for the state’s top job was impressive in some areas, it was very low in several other places.

Although 14 political parties participated in the exercise, there are three major contenders in the governorship race.

While Governor Biodun Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress, APC was seeking his re-election for a second term, Dr Wole Oluyede of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Ambassador Dare Bejide of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, sought to sack the incumbent governor.

INEC on Sunday morning declared Governor Biodun Oyebanji winner of the election after the APC garnered 319,224 votes to defeat the closest opponent, Wole Oluyede of PDP who also scored 40,543 votes.

According to the returning officer of the election, Prof Adenike Oladiji, who is the Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ambassador Dare Bejide’s ADC came third in the race with 12,872.

Election turns violent in polling units

DAILY POST reports that there was mild drama at Ilawe polling unit in Ward 2 in Ekiti South Local Government Area of the state when some security operatives allegedly attached to a presidential aide stormed a polling unit where a fracas ensued with the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Ambassador Oluwadare Bejide.

It was gathered that some political thugs allegedly working for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC violently attacked some voters in the area.

According to Ambassador Bejide, the armed personnel dragged his driver from his vehicle packed nearby and assaulted him, leaving the aide with severe injuries as he was rushed to the hospital for medical treatment.

The State Commissioner of Police arrived at the troubled spot after the fracas had ended and interacted with the personnel on ground and Ambassador Bejide to find lasting solutions to the situation.

DAILY POST further gathered that pockets of violence were reported in some other polling units with some electorates reportedly disenfranchised.

A report by the EU-SDGN Election Observation Hub said 24 incidents of violence were reported across 10 local government areas.

Vote buying

Some party stakeholders were captured on camera inducing voters with cash ranging from N5,000 to N20,000 – a situation condemned by relatively all participating opposition parties.

According to election observers, there were organised vote-buying operations across all the polling units despite the presence of security operatives, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

DAILY POST gathered that vote-buying incidents were recorded across multiple polling units in Emure-Ekiti and Ose-Ekiti Local Government Areas of the state.

Party agents, especially those of the ruling party, were seen asking voters to display their marked ballot papers as proof of voting for their candidate.

Rather than distributing cash directly at the polling units, some of the agents issued numbers to voters after they cast their ballots for onward payments.

Alleged pre-thumb-printed ballot papers were also discovered at a polling unit, raising concerns over electoral integrity in the country.

A video clip that circulated on social media during the election also captured the moment a party stakeholder was disbursing cash to electorates.

APC caught distributing alleged uncollected PVCs

There were videos and testimonies of alleged distribution of uncollected Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, to individuals suspected to have been brought from outside Ekiti to influence the outcome of the election.

A Civil Society Organization, CSO, under the aegis of Movement for Credible Elections, MCE, raised the alarm in a statement on Saturday, calling on relevant authorities to investigate the claims.

According to the group, if such allegations were established, they would amount to a grave violation of Nigeria’s electoral laws and a dangerous threat to the credibility of the democratic process.

“The circulation of these videos has generated widespread public concern and threatens to undermine confidence in the integrity of the electoral process. 

“Silence or inaction by relevant authorities, particularly the Independent National Electoral Commission, could further erode public trust in Nigeria’s democracy,” Convener of the group, Wale Okunniyi said.

There was no election in Ekiti – Isaac Fayose

Ekiti-born businessman, Isaac Fayose in his reaction to the conduct of the election, declared that no election was held in the state.

Fayose alleged that the ruling party only came to the state to intimidate and oppress the poor, describing the election as a coup.

He said, “Don’t deceive yourself, there was no kidnapping in Ekiti State today, they only came to intimidate and kidnap people. So many people are now in their detention center.

“They came to intimidate, oppress and perpetually enslave the poor. Even a blind man can see that there was no election today. APC refused to hold the election.

“It was a coup of the people without military uniform. It will be in the record that I didn’t follow the evil men”.