The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and a Coaltion of Observers have faulted Saturday’s Ekiti State governorship election results as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

INEC had declared Dr Kayode Fayemi, a former Minister of Mines and Steel Development and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of the election with 197,459 votes, coming tops in 12 out of 16 local government areas.

According to results declared by Prof Idowu Olayinka, the Chief Returning Officer, the PDP candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, came second with 178,121 votes.

But the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, at a news conference on Sunday in Abuja, described the election result as “a daylight robbery”.

“The PDP rejects in its entirety the results concocted by the APC, and security agencies, in the governorship election in Ekiti State and declared by INEC”.

He said the PDP was already collating all infractions in the election and would make its next steps public soon in order to reclaim its “stolen mandate”.

“The party rejects the falsified results and declaration of APC candidate, Dr Fayemi, to be the winner of the election, as a daylight robbery, a brazen subversion of the will of the people and direct assault on our democracy”.

“From the authentic results flowing directly from the polling centres across the state, it is clear that the PDP candidate, Prof. Olusola-Eleka, incontrovertibly won the election, with very comfortable margin over the APC candidate, only for INEC to allow the alteration of results at the collation centres”.

“Painfully, the people of Ekiti State were pillaged; openly brutalized; confronted with the worst form of cruelty and intimidation from security agencies, and their mandate, which they freely gave to the PDP, was snatched at ‘gun point’ by enemies of democracy, who are parading themselves as icons of anti-corruption”.

“Nigerians are witnesses to all manipulations by the APC, aided by security agencies and compromised INEC officials, to rig the election, particularly, the audacious alteration and substitution of election results in favour of the APC at the collation centres amidst the brutalization of our agents.”

Ologbondiyan said that the PDP had the details of all the polling units where it won, mostly with very wide margin ahead of the APC, alleging that security agencies chased away PDP agents, “then aided the alteration and swapping of such results with those smuggled in by the APC at the collation centres.”

“We have the details of the discrepancies between the authentic results from the polling units and the false figures eventually announced by INEC.”

Ologbondiyan said that the party also had details of how APC state governors and federal ministers also diverted huge sums of money from their states and ministries to bribe INEC top officials.

He also alleged that the APC bribed security agencies to perfect the brigandage against the people of Ekiti State.

“The PDP holds strongly that there is no way our democracy can survive with an electoral process as witnessed in Ekiti State under President Muhammadu Buhari and the current INEC leadership.”

“This bare-faced subversion of the will of the people is a clear recipe for crisis”, he said, describing the alleged robbery of the franchise of Ekiti people as “a horrible rape of Nigerian democracy”.“Finally, let it be known to all that surely, this electoral banditry will not stand.”

A Coalition of Observer Groups and Civil Society Organisations that observed and monitored the Saturday July 14th Governorship elections in Ekiti State have also condemned the announcement of the APC candidate, Fayemi as the winner of the elections.

In a press statement, the group said the election does not reflect what they saw on ground and it will open up on the true findings on Wednesday 18th July 2018 with details of the malpractices that greeted the election. The Coalition in a press statement signed by its contact persons, Comrade Haruna Farouk and Nze Adachi Okoro said it was regrettable that the INEC as well as the security agencies could be used to short change the people of the state the way they did on the day of the elections.

The Coalition said it has gathered evidence that will show how the election was massively rigged describing the situation as a sad moment for democracy in the country. “We have evidences of election malpractices where a particular party in connivance with security personnel went about inducing electorates with cash and coercing them to snap the ballot papers in order to receive cash gifts from the agents of the party in question”.

“The level of intimidation that occurred during the elections on Saturday was disheartening and shouldn’t be allowed to stand in modern day Nigeria. We witnessed a situation where loyalists of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and its agents were harassed and intimidated so as to make it difficult for them to participate in the elections.”

“Other incidence that we recorded will be made open in our findings which will definitely shock Nigerians and expose the conspiracy of INEC, security agents and the APC to deprive the people of Ekiti from expressing their constitutional rights.”

While calling on the international community to condemn what it called the ‘political terrorism’ that took place against the people of Ekiti state on Saturday, the coalition stressed that their voice against the actions of the Federal Government, INEC and security agents will help put pressure on the government to do the right thing.

Also Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has declared that what transpired during the Ekiti Governorship Election as the worst political robbery in the nation’s democratic history.

Governor Wike said the APC Federal Government will not be able to replicate the Ekiti Political Robbery in Rivers State because Rivers people are fully prepared.

Governor Wike spoke on Sunday at the Anglican Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, Port Harcourt during the Thanksgiving Service to mark the end of Third Year Anniversary Celebration of his administration.

He said: “Don’t be worried about what happened in Ekiti State. We are prepared. It will not happen here in Rivers State.

“I have never experienced that kind of robbery in politics. I told my colleagues, do not give them any chance. Most of them in APC are happy that they will repeat the same thing in Rivers State, we are waiting, come and repeat. Let your spirit not be down, work hard and victory will be ours”.

Winner of 2018 Ekiti governorship election, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has urged Governor Ayodele Fayose and  Prof. Kolapo Olusola, the candidate of the PDP to accept the results of the election in good faith.

The governor-elect urged the PDP to reciprocate and display a spirit of sportsmanship like he did in 2014.

He said: “The very nature of elections are divisive as we cannot all see things from the same perspective, neither can we all have the same preference for political parties and candidates”.

“However, regardless of how we voted yesterday, I encourage us all to accept the results in true democratic spirit and commence the journey to reuniting our state.

“Despite the divisive nature of the contest, I want you to remember our bond of unity as Ekiti people. I, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, hereby offer myself to be the governor of all irrespective of faith, creed or political belief.

Meanwhile, The Presidency has described the Governor of Ekiti state, Mr Ayodele Fayose, as a ”high-powered nothing” following the defeat of his party in Saturday’s governorship election in the state.

Fayose is one of the staunchest critics of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration since its advent in May 2015. This appears a better time for the media team to seek a pound of flesh after Fayose’s anointed candidate, Olusola, lost to Fayemi.

Buhari’s top media aide Garba Shehu said in a statement titled “Fayose: In The End, A High-Powered Nothing,” that the people of Ekiti, with the result, had spoken against Fayose.

He said, “In what observers said was the most intense, and a most angry campaign, the people gave their verdict: Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the one-time governor, declared persona-non-grata is now persona-grata again.”

“President Buhari has won this referendum. The people of the state have sent a clear message. The politics of brinksmanship, assaults, insults, abuses and Robin Hoodism disguised as stomach infrastructure has been rejected in favour of politics of inclusion, development, responsibility and good governance”.

“President Buhari’s war against corruption and insecurity; the message of Agric revolution and infrastructure development and fidelity in resource allocation and management have struck a chord with Ekiti voters, who had been lied to and deceived by Governor Fayose”.

“While the opposition continued to rant at him, President Buhari’s uprightness, coupled with incorruptibility and personal integrity, unmatched by any politician in the country have again stood the test of time.”

“The All Progressives Congress win in Ekiti means that the party has control over 25 out of the 36 states of the federation. The party thus becomes the only one in power in the six states of the South-West geopolitical zone”.

“Besides reinforcing the APC’s position as the only standing pole in the political landscape, it is a credit to the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, against whom all manner of ethnic and religious opposition is being mounted by former President Obasanjo and some of the Asiwaju’s sworn enemies in the sub-region”, he said.