RIVERS 4 MONTHS INCONCLUSIVE ELECTION: INEC Messing Up Democracy - Fayose

Mr. Ayodele Fayose, the Ekiti State Governor, has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission is messing up democracy in the country with its handling of elections under the President Muhammadu Buhari government.

Fayose described the postponement of the Rivers State rerun elections and the alleged manipulation of the Imo North Senatorial election as another dangerous signal of what Nigerians should expect in 2019, wondering how INEC that could not conduct elections conclusively in just one state would be able to conduct elections in the entire country in 2019.

The governor, in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said that “democracy in Nigeria is being threatened by INEC and this should call for national and international reflection.”

“Lovers of democracy in Nigeria and the entire world should be worried that after conducting inconclusive elections in Rivers State in March this year, INEC postponed the rescheduled elections twice.

“INEC had on June 20, after a meeting with relevant stakeholders, fixed June 30 as the new date for the conclusion of the poll.

“However, the electoral commission postponed the elections for the second time, claiming reports of violence, and one wonders how INEC will be able to conduct elections in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in 2019 if it has not been able to conclude elections in Rivers State in four months!”

He said, “Nigerians had thought issues of violence, ballot snatching and electoral fraud had been put behind them only for them to be brought back frontally by the Buhari’s government.

“President Buhari should ask himself if he would have been elected if the system then did not allow free and fair elections. The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, should also be worried if there would have been an INEC to head if the 2015 elections had been inconclusive.”

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INEC Under Yakubu Should Pack And Go - Rivers Govt

The Rivers state government through the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr Austin Tam-George in a statement has called for dissolution of the Independent National Electoral commission, INEC under the leadership of Professor Mahmood Yakubu.

The government accused the commission of allegedly conniving with the leadership of the All Progressive Congress, APC to postpone the rerun elections slated for Saturday indefinitely, he further enjoined the international community to assist in mounting what it termed diplomatic pressure on the federal government to give Nigerians a credible electoral body.

His words, “The government of Rivers State and people of Rivers State are shocked by the bare-faced collusion between INEC and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to subvert democracy in the state”.

“It is completely unacceptable that Rivers State would continue to be denied full representation in the National Assembly due to the incompetence and malpractices orchestrated by INEC”.

"We call on the presidency and the National Assembly to act urgently in the national interest to disband INEC as presently constituted, for its incompetence and open partisanship."

“We call on the international community to initiate and maintain diplomatic pressure on the federal government, which continues to frustrate the independence of INEC and the evolution of democratic diversity in Nigeria”.

“The people of Rivers state will continue to resist and defeat the medieval authoritarianism of the APC”.

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PDP Wins Kogi East Re-run Election

AVM Isaac Alfa, a former Chief of Air Staff, of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was yesterday declared winner of Kogi East Senatorial re-run election held on Saturday with 57,575 votes to defeat five other candidates, although the All Progressives Congress, APC, did not participate in the election due to an Appeal Court judgment banning it from fielding a candidate.

The Returning Officer, Professor Lucky Ovwhasa, while announcing Alfa winner of the Kogi East re-run, said candidates of ACPN, KOWA, MPPP, UPP and the Labour Party scored 1,793, 888, 498, 349 and 11,908 votes, respectively.

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Fayose Expresses Worry Over INEC Inability To Conduct Credible, Conclusive Elections

Dr. Ayodele Fayose, the Ekiti State Governor, reacting to the alleged manipulation of the Imo North Senatorial election, which was declared inconclusive, has expressed worry over the inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct credible and conclusive elections since the administration of the President Mohammadu Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) government took over power.

The governor said “democracy in Nigeria is being threatened by INEC and this should call for national and international reflection.”

Lere Olayinka, Special Assistant to the governor on Public Communications and New Media, quoted Fayose as saying that; “If we have done more than 15 elections since President Buhari assumed office and all ended inconclusive, it is obvious that we are tending towards anarchy.”

He said; “it is becoming very clear that votes of Nigerians are no
longer allowed to count under this APC government and one wonders if President Buhari would have been elected if the system then did not allow free and fair elections.”

Governor Fayose urged Nigerians to show more concern with
institutionalising democracy than the issue of who wins election,
adding that; “The only duty the APC government owes Nigerians is to allow for a system that will make them to be able to elect their
leaders freely.

“This system was created and allowed to flourish by the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) government. The APC, which is obviously desperate to hijack power at all levels through open manipulation of the electoral process must know that preventing people’s votes from counting is a clear invitation to anarchy.

“As it is, APC stalwarts are using security agents to unleash
violence on Nigerians during elections because they know that the
president won’t lift a finger provided his party members are the ones perpetrating electoral evil.”

He said; “Nigeria was already getting that important aspect of
democracy, which is election right before the advent of this APC
government and the government, especially INEC should be mindful of what history will present concerning them.”

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APC Protests Rivers Assembly’s Refusal To Swear In Members-Elect

Members of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, numbering about 2000 persons, staged a peaceful protest to the Rivers State House of Assembly complex on Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, demanding the swearing-in of Victoria Nyeche representing Port Harcourt Constituency 1 and Andrew Miller representing Opobo/Nkoro constituency who were elected on the platform of APC as members of the Assembly.

However, Mr Felix Obuah, the Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, has accused the APC of embarking on the protest ostensibly to scuttle the re-run elections in the state.

The PDP chieftain, in a statement in Port Harcourt, said: “It is now very clear that the APC has devised a new strategy to put the rescheduled re-run elections in the state perpetually on hold to make up for its unpreparedness.

“The ploy include cooking up fallacies and spurious allegations, and using such as basis for state-wide protests against the July 30, 2016 concluding re-run elections in the remaining eight local areas of the state.”

How Agbele Allegedly Bought N1.3bn Houses For Fayose – EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has made a breakthrough in the alleged corruption case against Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and his associate, Mr. Abiodun Agbele who is currently in EFCC custody. Agbele was said to have received N1.219bn from a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, on behalf of Fayose, in June 2014.

An investigator said that Fayose used Agbele to buy the two houses in Abuja, using bank loans from Skye Bank and Zenith Bank on the surface in a way that would make the source of the money look legitimate. However, the stolen money was used in offsetting the bank loans.

The detective said, “From the Dasuki funds, they had about N300m stashed in one account. However, when they were going to buy the N270m property located on Yedseram Street, they did not use the N300m from the stolen funds. Rather, they obtained a loan of N120m in the name of Spotless Hotel from Zenith Bank to deposit for the house.

“They then took about N150m out of the Dasuki money to pay the balance on the house and then used the same Dasuki funds to offset the loan. They went through all this stress to cover their tracks and make it look as if it was a bank loan they used in buying the property.

“Why did they take a loan that would be gathering interest when they had more than enough money to buy the house?”

The source said, “The worth of the four duplexes in Lagos is N1.1bn which was sold by Still Earth Nigeria Ltd. However, Fayose and Agbele paid Still Earth N1.3bn in cash and then told the company to transfer the balance of N200m to Skye Bank. It was that N200m that was used in purchasing the building at 44 Osun River Crescent, Abuja. This was done so that no one would be able to trace the fund to them.”

“This is a new discovery and we want to know why such funds would be released by local governments because so far there is no evidence of any contract between the local government and Agbele,” the source said.

Edo GUBER 2016: INEC Releases List Of Parties, Candidates

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have confirmed that 19 political parties would participate in the Sept. 10 governorship election in Edo.

The list signed by INEC’s Head of Legal Services, Mr Mathew Ugwuocha, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) also contained the names of candidates being fielded by the parties.

The list contains 19 male governorship candidates, 15 male running mates and four female running mates.

The governorship candidates with female running mates are Mr Thompson Osadolor, KOWA; Adviser Nowamagbe, UPP; Ishaka Ofemile, AA and Ukonga Frank, NNPP.

The running mates are Nancy Ewemade, AA; Florence Okundaye, KOWA; Okosun Davis, UPP and Emodogo Eweha, NNPP.

Others governorship candidates include Osagie Ize-Iyamu, PDP, with John Yakubu as running mate and Godwin Obaseki, APC, with Philip Shaibu, member of House of Representatives, as running mate. (NAN)