Ekiti Guber Polls: Coalition Of Election Observers, CSOs Reject Final Result
BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – A coalition of Civil Society Organisations and Elections Observer groups that monitored the conduct of the Saturday July 14 Governorship elections in Ekiti State have vehemently condemned the announcement of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. John Kayode Fayemi as the winner of the elections.
This is just as the Coalition called on the international community to as a matter of necessity condemn what it described as “political terrorism” that took place against the people of Ekiti state on Saturday July 14, 2018.
It noted that the voice of the international community coming out strong against the actions of the Federal Government, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Security agencies will help mount pressure on the government to do the right thing.
These were contained in a statement issued by the coalition in which they declared that the final result of the election did not in any way reflect what they monitored and saw on ground.
Accordingly, the Coalition of CSOs and Observer groups said they would give blow by blow and detail account of what took place thus will open up on the true findings of their monitoring and observations on Wednesday July 18, 2018 during which malpractices that greeted the election would be exposed.
The statement which was signed by its contact persons, Comrade Haruna Farouk and Nze Adachi Okoro noted with regret that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies allowed themselves to be used to short change the people of Ekiti state the way they did on the day of the elections.
The Coalition said it evidence to show the world how the election was massively rigged, describing the development as a sad moment for democracy in the Nigeria.
According to the groups; “We have evidences of election malpractices where a particular party in connivance with security personnel went about inducing electorates with cash and coercing them to snap the ballot papers in order to receive cash gifts from the agents of the party in question.
“The level of intimidation that occurred during the elections on Saturday was disheartening and should not be allowed to stand in modern day Nigeria. We witnessed a situation where loyalists of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and its agents were harassed and intimidated so as to make it difficult for them to participate in the elections.
“Other incidence that we recorded will be made open in our findings which will definitely shock Nigerians and expose the conspiracy of INEC, Security agents and the APC to deprive the people of Ekiti from expressing their constitutional rights.”
