The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has accused Governor Ayodele Fayose and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission of plotting to compromise the July 14 governorship election.
Fayemi, who raised the alarm through Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation, alleged that four officials of INEC were neck-deep in the new plot.
Addressing News men on Tuesday in Ado-Ekiti, the Deputy Director-General (South) of KFCO, Bamidele Faparusi, said the INEC’s team was led by a former official, Ishaku Abbo, who he claimed had been living with the governor in the Government House since January.
He revealed that a secret meeting had held with three top officials of INEC from the national headquarters in the Government House.
The organisation gave the names of the officials as Egharevba John, Festus Aisien, Igidiogu Kelechi and Abbo.
Faparusi said, “Curiously, these three top officials hold strategic positions in election management. One is from the Administration; one is Stores and Distribution Department while the other is an Information and Communications Technology top official.
“For the reasons best known to them, only the Government House was their exclusive port of call; APC was never in the picture.
“After this evil agenda, Fayose stormed the media to raise allegations that the APC was in Ondo State Government House to manipulate the ballot to give the APC an edge in the July 14 election.
“When Fayose is up to something sinister, he will accuse an innocent man of committing that evil. And so immediately he made the allegation, we knew he had concluded an evil agenda.”
He said the investigation into the fraud ring in the Government House led to shocking revelations that some sensitive INEC documents had been illegally produced in the Government House with the help of the INEC officials.
“Documents already produced include stamps, PVCs, Result sheets (Form EC 8A) and INEC accreditation forms.
“We are calling on INEC headquarters to note these atrocities being perpetrated by its corrupt officials to tarnish the image of the electoral body.”
Faparusi also called on security agencies to investigate all these activities and bring the culprits to book.
But debunking the allegations, the INEC Public Relations Officer in Ekiti, Taiwo Gbadegesin, said the commission didn’t receive any official from Abuja and as such none of their officers visited the governor on any scheduled or emergency invitation.
He said, “There is no form called accreditation form in the first place; accreditation will be done with smart card readers and the four people mentioned were our members of staff but they had not visited Ekiti for any reason.
“Let me also tell the public that form EC8A is with the CBN and it will be deployed to Ekiti with ballot papers. They are coded with serial numbers and can’t be duplicated by anybody.
“As part of our openness, we sent the voter registers to all the political parties. Our doors are open to all political parties; so the APC is free to come here and make verifications, rather than making unsubstantiated allegations.”
Also reacting, the campaign organisation of the PDP governorship candidate in Ekiti State, Prof Kolapo Olusola, said Fayemi, by the allegations, was “a frustrated desperate politician that already smells electoral defeat.”
The Director of Media and Publicity, Kolapo Olusola Campaign Organisation, Lere Olayinka, said it was clear that Fayemi was raising the alarm to cover up his plans to manipulate himself to power.
He said, “Those banking on the federal might to foist themselves on Ekiti people are the ones now crying just to divert attention. We have been preparing for this election since 2016 and Ishaku Abbo was engaged as a consultant since then.
“Whereas, Fayemi is just running around trying to market a battered image to the same Ekiti people that he maltreated when he was governor and did nothing when he was a minister.”
