Fresh crisis trails Ekiti rerun election

But the two major political parties in the rerun polls in the state, Peoples Democratic Party and the Action Congress, however, differed in their reactions to the announcement of the new date.

While the PDP welcomed the new date as a good development, the AC said it would not participate in the Oye fresh election

”It is a welcome development. It is what we have been asking for. We believe the two wards in Oye are the stronghold of the PDP and that is why we have been canvassing that elections should be allowed. INEC has answered our prayer now”, Mr Jackson Adebayo, Director of Communication and Strategy for the Ekiti PDP told SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday.

But the National Publicity Secretary of the AC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said late on Saturday that the party would boycott the election in Oye.

”The AC is not going to be part of the election in Oye. It is clear that Iwu has an agenda. He has said that elections have been concluded in nine local government areas and the results are ready. It is not for Iwu to tell Nigerians whether elections have been concluded in those local governments. It is for the Resident Electoral Commissioner to do so. All we believe is that Iwu wants to prevent Mrs Adebayo from exercising her power based on her true assessment on the Ekiti rerun”, the AC spokesman said in his reaction to the new date.

He explained the position of the party further, ”If Ido-Osi result is upheld by INEC, what are we going to do in Oye? All Nigerians know that the Ido-Osi result is a fake result and the REC did not accept it based on the fact that the collation was not done at INEC designated collation centres. That is the reason for our decision not to be part of the Oye rerun”

In the announcement by INEC, it said ”the result of the election of April 25, 2009 in the rest of the 61 wards and nine local government areas of the state as was announced by the relevant Returning Officers in the wards and the local governments remain valid as stipulated also in Section 69 of the Electoral Act 2006”

This, the electoral body said, was ”in accordance with the provision of section 28 of the Electoral Act 2006”

The election in Oye failed on April 25 when polls in other affected wards of the state were held, due to violence. It was then fixed for April 26, and later 27, after clashes between the supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party and Action Congress prevented voting on April 25.

The INEC, in a statement on Saturday signed by the Acting Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Emmanuel Umenger said ”that the supplementary governorship election in Oye local government area of Ekiti State which could not be held on Saturday April 25, 2009 as had been scheduled will now hold on Tuesday May, 5 2009 from 8am-3pm as usual”

INEC warned that only duly accredited agents of the political parties that are participating in the election as well as the Chief Observer of the accredited observer groups will be allowed at the collation centres.

According to him ”movement into and out of Oye local government area where the election will be conducted will be restricted on the Election Day until the election is over”

Reacting to the new date, however, the former governor of Ekiti State and chief supporter of Dr Kayode Fayemi, the AC‘s candidate in the April 25 rerun poll, Mr Ayo Fayose, lambasted Prof Maurice Iwu, the INEC National Chairman for the crisis in the state, accusing him of harbouring a sinister agenda in the Ekiti elections.

Fayose, therefore, gave the INEC conditions for having fresh election in Oye. ”Any election in Oye must not only be free and fair, but must be seen to be so and devoid of violence,” he charged.