During an interview monitored on
Adaba 88.9 FM, a former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi,
spoke on an audio tape about how the June 21, 2014 governorship election
was purportedly rigged in the state. JOSIAH OLUWOLE monitored the interview
Recently,
an audio file was released detailing how the Ekiti 2014 governorship
election was rigged. Why did you go ahead to congratulate Fayose on June
22 with this information at your disposal?
I am glad we have come to this point in
Ekiti. Even those who were deluded into believing that the voters in
Ekiti voted against our party are beginning to see the comprehensive
grand plan. You raised a pertinent question and I would like to answer
that question. Yes, I was very careful in the couching of my statement. I
said if this is the will of the Ekiti people… The qualifier there is
the word ‘if’. If it is the will of the Ekiti people then I accept, but
the second paragraph went into great detail, stating all of what you
heard, the harassment, the arrest, the intimidation and the grand plan
from Abuja, I spoke about all that.
But I also then said, that for me, the
peace of Ekiti was paramount and that at that particular time, I chose
peace first, justice later. Why did I say that? Part of the grand plan
which is not in this tape, which you will hear later in a subsequent
tape, was to kill as many Ekiti people. If people had gone out to
protest, they would have been killed. Are you saying that Segun Oni lost
in Ifaki? Are you saying Niyi Adebayo lost in Oye? We had 226, 000
members in our party and the votes declared for us was 120,000. You are
suggesting that 100,000 of our voters either voted against us or did not
vote.
That is the implication and that these
people will be happy to vote for an opposition, that is the other
implication. And of course, if you listen to the tape you will hear of a
duplicate copy of the INEC ballot papers and computers. But was I
really ready for Ekiti people’s blood to be spilled? I am not in
politics as a blood-sucking ogre and I am not going to play politics on
the grounds of anything but myself. I knew we were going to come to this
point and those who want to challenge me on this should read my past
interviews.
I had predicted we were going to get to
this point because I knew blow by blow what transpired and some of the
other elements who were not even involved at this level, who were
involved at the Abuja level had also spoken to me about the role they
played in what transpired in Ekiti, which helped us in preventing it in
Osun.
So, Ekiti had to be the sacrificial
lamb. People have asked me why now, why are you releasing it now? We are
releasing it now because it is also part of the grand plan, we are
releasing it a few days to the election, election as supposed to be
February 14 and the tape was released because this was the plot for
Lagos, for Oyo, for Rivers, Imo.
Specific states had been chosen to be
militarised during this election and to use exactly the same compromised
military officials. Why did Brig. Gen. Aliyu Momoh come for the Ekiti
election? Because Brig. Gen. Dikko, the Brigade Commander here, refused
to be a pun. Dikko blatantly told the then Minister of State for
Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, to his face that he was not going to be his
agent of manipulation and rigging and those who are aware of what Dikko
did in the Ilaje/Ese-Odo federal constituency election in Ondo know why
they cannot risk leaving such a professional officer here to conduct the
Ekiti election. That is why after Momoh had supposedly delivered in
Ekiti, they then decided that Brigadier Adeyemi, who was the Brigade
Commander in Osun, had to be moved so that Momoh who had no business in
Osun, because he was commanding a totally different brigade and Osun has
its own brigade, was taken to Osun for the same purpose.
But we were able to counter that,
thankfully. However, the issue is now out. If Ayo Fayose is telling any
man in Ekiti that that is not him, then you know this is a man who is an
inveterate liar. His voice cannot be mistaken anywhere. A two-year old
in Ekiti will tell you this is Ayo Fayose.
What is your party, the All
Progressives Congress, doing to ensure that a scenario like this does
not play out in the coming elections?
That is part of what we are doing now.
We released this tape…the military is scampering now all over the place.
Beyond this, we are also taking steps and those steps I cannot disclose
here on air. But we are prepared.
The INEC Chairman, Prof.
Attahiru Jega, has postponed the elections on the grounds that the
military would not be able to secure the ballot as they would be
battling Boko Haram. What does this portend for our democracy?
If you want to take an extreme view on
this, there is no other word for it than treason. The upper echelon of
the military is guilty of treason against the state because the first
duty of any government is security and the welfare of the people. If
INEC was ready by and large to conduct an election and an institution
that is responsible for an aspect of the election refuses to oblige,
that institution is acting unconstitutionally. And when you act
unconstitutionally like that against national security, you are
committing treason. That is the extreme view. If you subject it to just
an objective analysis, that Ok, you said because of Boko Haram, that you
cannot guarantee security, the military hierarchy admitted that 14
local government areas are affected by this out of the 774 local
government areas. In 1999, elections did not take place in Bayelsa State
because of militant activities but it took place in the other 35 states
and the FCT. That election later took place in Bayelsa a month after.
So, there is no reason you could not
have isolated the 14 local government areas affected by Boko Haram and
carry on with the 760 local government areas left. But of course, we all
know that this is not about security. This is about a desperate
government and a desperate President that is afraid of losing, a loss
that is so imminent that everybody can see and feel around them,
including the President. The military became a wiling tool. Why would
they not be a willing tool? You saw the way a general (Momoh) was spoken
to on that day. A general in the military was insulted and derided as
if he was a nobody because they have allowed their institutions to be
desecrated and I keep saying that even in the military there are so many
Sagir Koli (the captain who leaked the audio tape) who are unhappy
about their profession being desecrated by these elements.
There are theories that the
President Goodluck Jonathan government may not relinquish power on May
29, do you believe these conspiracy theories?
Well, I am not even sure whether to call
them conspiracy theories any more. I have heard credibly …at least
there is an element within the ruling class, considering this option. We
are back to 1993, pre-June 12. We are at that stage now and you have
people who just have contempt of the ordinary people of Nigeria. There
is a section of the ruling party that is considering the possibility of
not going into elections. I have received what I consider solid
information on this, but ultimately it will fail, just as these things
have failed in the past. I don’t see the provision within the law that
they will use in justifying this. Yes, I am aware they have reconvened
the National Assembly and this is a matter that is likely to come before
the National Assembly, maybe using the Doctrine of Necessity again, but
I believe that Nigerians will resist this with every fibre of their
being.
What is the APC doing with the audio file, are you submitting it to security agencies, besides releasing it to the public?
We are taking all the appropriate
constitutional steps to ensure that this does not go unpunished. There
are soldiers willing and ready at the appropriate time to testify in
court beyond Koli.
Don’t you feel the audio
tape will be forgotten like that of the $3 million bribe scandal that
rocked the House of Representatives in 2012?
You can understand why Mr. Fayose is
doing what he is doing, including the lies about Gen. Buhari. He knows
that the minute this election takes place, and a genuine winner emerges,
he is as good as history. That is why he is doing what he is doing. He
is a desperate man; he is even more desperate than Jonathan. He is
fighting for his life. He is one of the apostles of interim government. I
should let you know that. He believes that all his atrocities will come
back to haunt him. The judges they have beaten up who cannot talk now,
the civil servants they have harassed, the solders, even Gen. Momoh
should be pitied because he is a victim, he wants promotion. It takes a
very tough person to resist the kind of filthy lucre that these people
offer.
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