Ekiti poll: Going to tribunal, futile – Fayose I’ll still create more LGs – Fayemi Ekiti State governor-elect, Mr. Ayo Fayose, has said alleged moves by some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress, APC to contest his victory at last Saturday’s gubernatorial election, will not change anything because the “people through their ballot papers have spoken.” He further said that the statesmanship and sportsmanship of Governor Kayode Fayemi in accepting defeat had made any plan to test the validity of his victory in court a wasted effort. Speaking through the Ayo Fayose Campaign Organisation, AFCO, the governor-elect said yesterday that anyone thinking of going to the tribunal to challenge results of the election would be wasting his time and resources. He said: “Challenging the results of an election adjudged by the whole world as the best in the history of elections in Nigeria will be an exercise in futility.” In a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, the Director-General of AFCO, Chief Dipo Anisulowo, described claims by some APC leaders that the election was rigged through what they called “photochromic” as laughable. Anisulowo said despite the fact that the APC candidate (Governor Fayemi) had already conceded defeat, the governor-elect was aware of the falsehood being peddled by the APC that the ballot papers were designed in a way that made the thumbprints to disappear “within minutes” while “pre-programmed” votes would later appear. The statement read in part: “We are aware of the feeble and childish attempt that some of the APC loyalists are making to discredit the election already adjudged as the best in the history of Nigeria. They are posting on the internet that all the votes that were announced by INEC were pre-programmed, claiming that the term ‘photochromic’ was used to produce the ballot papers. “All these are calculated attempt by the APC people to discredit the election results, perhaps in readiness for their wild goose chase at the tribunal, but we want to assure them that they won’t succeed this time. “Nigerians should be reminded of how the APC people lied in 2007 that they recorded how the governorship election was rigged even in the palace of the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adejugbe, but the party could not produce a single photo evidence at the tribunal because their plans to do what is known as Morphing and Syncing was exposed.” I’ll still create more LGs – Gov Fayemi Meanwhile, Governor Fayemi has revealed that his government would create more local government areas before the expiration of his tenure. In a statement he issued in Ado Ekiti yesterday when he received the report of the Committee for the Creation of Additional Local Government Councils headed by Justice Akin Ajakaye, Fayemi said that “some said that the timing for the setting up of committee is mere political gimmick, but we knew that we wanted it genuinely. So, we appreciate the good work the committee has done by traversing the length and breadth of Ekiti to meet the people. “One thing critical is the criteria to be considered and that is the fact that the communities must have agreed on the choice of the location of the council headquarters. Now, whatever we do won’t create tension and division among our people.” He said the state government would comply strictly with the law by constituting a committee on the report that would be subjected to referendum by the Ekiti State Independent Electoral Commission, ESIEC and eventual ratification by the House of Assembly. “I want to believe that the committee has done a thorough job. This noble intention of our government is to bring governance nearer to the people. It is devoid of partisanship and subjectivity,” he said. Earlier, Justice Ajakaye said the committee received 72 memoranda from interested communities, adding that claims presented by the towns were thoroughly verified to arrive at the choice of recommended councils.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:37:40 +0000
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