Ekiti Liberation Agenda (ELA) has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against an alleged deliberate and illegal exclusion key opposition figures from the list of candidates for the 2006 Governorship Poll.
The spokesperson of the group, and former chairperson of Ado Local Government,Mrs Omotunde Fajuyi while addressing journalists in Ado-Ekiti alleged that the unfolding political.scenerio in the state suggesting the complicity of the ruling party in the disqualification and omission of the opposition candidates’ names .
The group accused the Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji and the INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan of masterminding the alleged exclusion .
However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Publicity Secretary in Ekiti State Segun Dipe dismissed the allegations ,saying ELA lacked the loco standi to.function as a political party . The APC chieftain described ELA as a meddlesome interloper .
According to him,the powers to recognize a candidate or otherwise lies with the electoral body .
ELA that you are talking about is not known in the political participation of any election in Ekiti, they are just meddlesome interlopers.
“It is not possible for APC to mastermind the exclusion of any person, or to disqualify our members, but the national headquarters who conduct the primary, having not met some qualifications.
“On Oluyede, go and read INEC position, it is clear they did not upload at the time, they are supposed to do, so as to be accepted by INEC. So, how did that concern us?” Dipe said
Notwithstanding the APC rebuttal,ELA called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene.innthecmatter warning that continued silence by the concerned authorities could heighten tension in the state.
The group ,therefore demanded the immediate restoration of Oluyede’s name to the INEC list, insisting that failure to do so would deepen political discontent in the state.
It explained that Dr Oluyede had emerged from a free and fair primary election duly monitored and reportedly cleared by INEC officials, questioning why his name was later excluded without any formal explanation.
It alleged that the controversy surrounding the PDP candidate’s omission compounded earlier grievances within the All Progressives Congress (APC), where she alleged that credible aspirants, including Engineer Kayode Ojo and another female aspirant, Abimbola Olajumoke, were unjustly disqualified without reasons during party primaries.
“Forget about the lies, forget about the misconceptions of so many things or misrepresentations. I was in the state when it was created, we know a bit about here, we have not had it this bad.
“When the politics is being played in such a way that will not encourage the best option, we have issues where the ruling government disqualified one of our daughters and one of our sons, Engineer Kayode Ojo and Jumoke.
“No reasons were adduced for their disqualification, nobody does that, the ruling government is just the ruling party that is taking everybody for granted. I was a member of APC but because of what happened, I had to step aside.
“And we heard some terrible stories about how Ekiti money was being taken to negotiate things so that there won’t be a contest. And they came around to make a sham of the primaries. It’s not my business because I’m not a party member. The party members should complain, not me. But Nigeria is such that shutting your mouth, being muted, has become the trademark but some of us cannot just be muted. We cannot be shut down or shut up.
“Now, INEC published its list and it omitted the PDP candidate, Dr Wole Oluyede who had free and fair primaries. If they had issues in their party. I’m not a PDP member either, they know how to treat it internally but INEC was there. I have read the report of INEC.
“Why will INEC now say they are not including his name? It has been alleged that the same incumbent here now is the one using INEC because when it got to the INEC chairman, he said he’s acting on orders. In a democracy, some of us, we talk, even when those who are supposed to talk are not talking, we will talk. It is not for a person to just manipulate anyhow.
“It cannot be treated as a doormat. All these things have been in the papers, in the news. Online, in the print media, in the electronic media. Yet, the leaders there are not doing anything about it.
“Mr. President, if he doesn’t want fire to start burning from Ekiti, to please take cognizance of what is happening and rectify them. Ekiti is such a place that good will always start from and the other good will always start from here.
“So, let it be that the powers that be please intervene. We don’t just disqualify the best of our packs. How will you want to be in a position you don’t want to contest? Contest takes you to where you want to lead. So that is the major focus here and Ekiti has had enough of all this
rigmaroling and twisting us. I represent Ekiti Liberation Agenda, we won’t be slaves to anybody again.
“But how can somebody have gone to the primaries in his party and has done it well and INEC has clarified and has agreed that it was a properly conducted primary and say you are removing his name. Let his name be restored, or there will be issues.
*Let Amupitan deny it, because I know those who went to him have him on record and they can come out and testify to that. I’m not a member of any political party. ELA is a brainchild of some of us who felt concerned that it is being maltreated, it’s being short changed. And we came together recently, about two months ago, to say enough is enough. But then the PDP thing now became the height of it, it became the abrasion of the wound.
“There was a wound in APC, when some of them were supporting Kayode Ojo then the wound was abrased by this PDP non-inclusion . Let them not put fire in Ekiti.
“You can’t be cheating someone and you expect that person to keep quiet. If they keep quiet forever, then they may die with that situation. That’s why I say, Ekiti will not take this lying low. It’s no threat”.