• APC, PDP seek thorough investigation
TEN days to the conduct of governorship election in Ekiti State, men of the Nigerian Army yesterday intercepted a vehicle loaded with voting materials being transported outside the state.
But the State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Alhaji Halilu Pai, dismissed the materials as wastes, which had been auctioned to a Lagos-based company.
Addressing newsmen on the arrest, the Commander of the 32 Artillery Brigade, Brigadier General Aliu Momoh said preliminary investigations revealed that the voting materials, which included 2006, 2007, 2009 voting papers and 2014 rubber stamp belonging to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were among sensitive materials discovered in a truck with registration number, Lagos APP 925 XL.
Momoh, who paraded the driver and two occupants in the vehicle said they will be handed over to the Operatives of the State Security Services (SSS) to continue the investigation. The suspects are, Oluwafemi Ose, Segun Akanbi and Biodun Erinfolami.
The brigade commander also disclosed that his men are in the state to ensure peace before and during the election and are ready to discharge their responsibilities without fear or favour. He, however, disclosed that his men have been ordered to shoot anybody found with any offensive weapons in the state.
He said, “We are here to ensure that all is peaceful in Ekiti State, but anybody found with any dangerous weapon shall be brought down. Quote me, whoever is found with any offensive weapon shall be treated as enemy of the state and shall be brought down. You don’t need weapons to vote, all you need is your voters’ card, and anybody who tried to foment trouble will meet a match in us.”
Speaking on how they came about the materials, Ose said he was an employee of a beverage company in Lagos and was in Akure to deliver the products before he was contacted by one Mr. KK to help him load some materials to Lagos.
According to him, “After I off-loaded the products I brought from Lagos, I did not have enough cash on me to buy gas but I was contacted by Mr. KK to help him load some materials from Ado Ekiti to Lagos.
“We got to Ekiti INEC office last night and met a vehicle loading and I had to wait till he finished loading before I started loading the materials in my vehicle. We loaded late into the night but I could not leave until this morning, but on our way we were arrested by soldiers and they brought us here.”
But Pai, who described the materials as waste, denied that INEC 2014 rubber stamp could not have been among the waste. He said when his office was contacted by the soldiers that they intercepted the vehicle, he told them that the materials were waste which INEC office in Abuja had auctioned since April.
According to him, “The materials had been auctioned to a Lagos company since April but the company had not come to evacuate the waste, we have been expecting them to evacuate them three weeks ago and this is the approval from Abuja, but the company did not come yesterday and we have to allow them to carry them because we need the store for new materials for next week’s election. We are sure that those things are absolute and we need to clear them out.”
He maintained that the commission had no reason to provide police escort to the materials since they are not going to be used.
“They won’t be used at all in anyway. It is unfortunate if anybody thinks we have been compromised.” Adding that the security should conduct investigation to establish the truth.
But Momoh replied that he was still expecting men of SSS and the public would be briefed about their findings.
However, the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have called for a thorough investigation into the controversy surrounding the intercepted INEC voting materials in the state.
In a statement by its spokesperson, Dimeji Daniels, the organisation said though INEC claims they were waste which auction was sanctioned by its national commission, it remains curious that 2014 stamps were found among the materials.
Daniels urged security agencies to be on the lookout for agents of rigging who are bent on reversing the progress that has been witnessed under the Fayemi administration.
“APC does not have the culture of rigging. We know many plans are being put in motion and hatched by the opposition to rig this election because the opposition knows it is not popular and not on ground at all. This is why no stone should be left unturned in preventing agents of retrogression from taking Ekiti back 100 years like they did between 2003 and 2006.”
Also, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the state, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has called for a full-scale investigation into the importation of fake ballot papers into the state allegedly by the All Progressives Congress, saying; “The arrest of a truck loaded with ballot papers at Ita-Awure by soldiers is a vindication of our stand that the APC was planning to rig the election.”
In a release issued by the Director General of the Ayo Fayose Campaign Organisation (AFCO), Chief Dipo Anisulowo, the governorship candidate said; “It is curious that two commissioners in the state swiftly rushed to where the truck was arrested to intervene and get it freed with the occupants.”
Fayose, who commended the soldiers for refusing the overtures of the two commissioners, demanded that; “There must be no cover-up of this heinous crime. Since the vehicle is marked, the public must know who are behind the production of the ballot papers, their possible collaborators in the Independent National Electoral Commission and the purpose for which the ballot papers were produced.”
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