PDP Did not Win Ekiti Election – Shehu Sani

A northern-based rights activist and President of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, Mallam Shehu Sani said on Tuesday that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), did not win the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State.

Sani, in a statement in Kaduna on Tuesday,  said the election could not be free and fair when the government of the day used security operatives to harass and intimidate  political opponents to favour the ruling Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Mr. Ayo Fayose.

The CRC’s boss noted that in the run off to that election, key APC figures, campaign managers as well  as government functionaries  were arrested, adding that a credible  elections must be devoid of the use of force or coercion in any way.

The pro-democracy activist warned that what happened in Ekiti must not happen in Osun State in during the forthcoming governorship poll in that state.

“The PDP did not win Ekiti; they captured Ekiti through the strategy of force and inducement. Governor Kayode Fayemi’s acceptance of defeat is more for peace than for justice. Those in Abuja reveling in the victory over APC are simply toasting to the cruel triumph of might over morality. The will of the people cannot be said to be freely expressed with a record military planes hovering over the skies of Ekiti and soldiers on the ground,” he said.

He urged Nigerians to rise up against what he described as ‘forces against democracy’ and  be ready,  prepared to defend their votes against the predatory  ruling party backed by the state apparatus.”

Sani, a senatorial aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress in Kaduna State, said democratic and progressive forces in Nigeria should not tolerate the repeat of the Ekiti episode in 2015:

He said, “Those who accepted, endorsed and embraced Ekiti elections as free and fair are by extension giving their imprint to the adoption of it in the 2015 general elections.

“We fought and ended military rule in Nigeria. We will not tolerate its return through the backdoor. Drafting the military to supervise elections position them to partisanship, drags them into murky political  waters and negatively affect their professionalism.

“The Ekiti elections is neither free nor fair irrespective of the acceptance of Governor Kayode Fayemi. The cruelty and Brigandage by the security apparatus in the days to the election created an atmosphere of fear, apprehension  and intimidation that can in no reasonable assessment be considered as fair.