Ayo Fadaka is the spokesperson for the governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi. He speaks with HAKEEM GBADAMOSI, on the last governorship election and position of the party.
What is your assessment of the November 16th governorship election in the State?
The November 16th election was everything that was neither free nor fair. I have always underscored the fact that election is not a one day affair, the compromise of an election is always immersed in the preparations for such an election. Please remember that consistently we shouted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should remove its Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ondo State if it was serious about conducting a free and credible election, as we alleged that Mrs Toyin Babalola was already compromised, and remained so. The INEC chairman failed to act; we then switched to Toyin herself to, as a matter of honour, recuse herself. But, of course, she did not. So to that extent, the plan to compromise the election was on full throttle. Days to the election, INEC suddenly discarded the list of its already trained ad hoc staff to work on election day and replaced them [using] a list prepared for it by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Secretariat in Ondo State. Again, we shouted ourselves hoarse on this score and nothing happened. So where is the fairness when the umpire was already in bed and sweet romance with the APC?
On election day itself, the APC opened the vaults of the state, sent N6.5 million to every ward to buy the votes of hapless people, already subdued by hunger, thereby weaponising poverty. Where then is the free election anticipated?
However, permit me to tell you that in spite of the vote-buying, the results of the election were still conjectured, concocted and altered. I will not elaborate more on this as we will meet at the Tribunal where we will open the lid on the criminality that the election represented.
So you believe that your party did not truly lose the election, given the popularity of APC?
Mark my words, there was no election. What we had was an electoral heist, absolute robbery, brazenly executed, but poorly conceived. It affirms the roguery the APC represents. APC cannot lay any claim to popularity. This is a party whose time in governance has destroyed the nation’s economy, societal norms and indeed the very fabric of it existential goals. It is a party that continues to stand the nation on its head in view of its total criminality. My prayer is that our democracy will not die through its unabated criminality and incompetence. Nigerians are totally fed up with its failure. People these days call for a change of government because of current frustrations encountered. However, we must be patient and, hopefully, believe that our votes will count in the next election so that we can have a peaceful change. Anything short of that will be a recipe for anarchy.
The election was said to be marred by low turnout and vote-buying; what is your take on that?
You can say that. Decent people who were averse to a continuation of the APC did not come out to vote when they heard that votes were to be bought for N10,000 or N20,000. They could not imagine the commercialisation of election and the prosecution of such wholesale bribery. The [incident] of vote-buying is one scourge that we must begin to think about how to eschew; it is a cancer eating up our democracy. If it were at a time we truly have an independent and proactive National Assembly, we should be thinking of changes to our electoral laws, by changing our voting style to the discarded option A4, and also pursuing civic training or education of the citizens. If indeed our democracy is predicated on a buying and selling format, then we don’t need it any longer, because all what criminals need do to be in power is to steal money from wherever, get to government and loot our commonwealth unhindered.
What is the next step by your party?
It is being said that you are heading to the Tribunal, or have you accepted the result of the election?
To the State Elections Petition Tribunal we are headed. We will contest the results of this criminal process referred to as election. My friends in APC continue to call me and say why must we contest this result in “Tinubu’s” court? And when I ask them what they mean, they say under President Tinubu, courts are compliant to his whims and caprices, therefore asking for an enforcement of our rights is a waste of time. While they so massaged their filthy ego, they continue to drag President Bola Tinubu down into the murky waters they swim. Truly, APC is a murky river, but theTinubu I know was an activist who believed that institutions must work and maintain their integrity. I have yet to see him breathe down the neck of the judiciary, hold it in a vice grip to do the murky bidding of his party. It is also a challenge for the Chief Justice of the Federation and indeed every judge down the line to please rescue the judiciary and place it on proper footing. To describe our courts as Tinubu’s courts is to pass a collateral insult to all judges and assume they are mere puppets not deserving of all the training and corporate expertise they have acquired all these decades. To still beat their chests and assume that our courts are Tinubu’s courts is to believe that our judges too can be reduced to those hapless and ignorant voters who they “buy” for a paltry N10,000 on election day, in spite of their education, training, exposure, and experience. It is time to salvage our judiciary from the cheap and low esteem accorded it by our APC friends. Truly, there may be some judges whose actions, pronouncements and activities may have underwhelmed that institution, they must not be allowed to be the defining factor for our judiciary. In the days of the military regime, we had judges who held their ground and upheld the rule of law, much against the policies and actions of the military government. Therefore, our judges must stand firm against any encroachment of the privileges and powers of the judiciary and this is in the interest of the nation, and reject inducement. Cursed be the day that citizens will see our courts as an extension of anybody, then self-help will be on the ascendancy and anarchy will begin to set in; Nigeria will then begin to die. As for us, to the Tribunal we go, and as a matter of fact, we are already in court, and so is the NNDP candidate, Gbenga Edema, and that party itself. The judiciary must prove itself as belonging to Nigeria and not to any man, as our friends in the APC will want us to believe.
READ ALSO: 13 political parties accept Ondo election results, back Gov Aiyedatiwa
