Queries trail PDP's push for troops in Ekiti elections
From Ifedayo Sayo (Ado-Ekiti) and Lawrence Njoku (Enugu)
CRITICISMS at the weekend trailed public declarations by some elected leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that troops would be deployed in Ekiti State during its forthcoming re-run elections.
Political parties and civil groups, which reacted to the PDP leaders' comments, said it was unthinkable that under democratic dispensation, members of the Executive and Legislature could be planning to use soldiers to conduct a governorship election in just some parts of Ekiti State.
The Action Congress (AC), which accused the PDP of a plot to rig the election, said it was happy that the plan met its waterloo during a weekend stormy sail into the state.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday, AC's National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the relentless PDP has now decided to resort to its last jokers: "The use of soldiers and a blatant overture to the Resident Electoral Commissioner to use an already written result to rig the re-run."
The party claimed that at the time of issuing its statement, there was pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner "to use an already written result to rig the re-run."
The AC said that in spite of the INEC official's warning that such action would be "too dangerous to use, given the tension in the state", is being brushed aside by the PDP. They have assured her that the whole idea of deploying the Army to Ekiti State for the re-run is to contain any fall-out from the planned rigging, AC said
Mohammed said the boast by the "over-excited Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, at Igede-Ekiti that the PDP will indeed deploy soldiers to the state for the election has shown the mindset of the PDP and its desperation to win Ekiti at all cost."
But yesterday, Bankole said some newspapers misrepresented him on the issue.
In a statement, the Speaker's Special Adviser (Media), Mr. Kayode Akinmade, said Bankole's goodwill message at the occasion was taken out of context and the background to the campaign rally in some newspapers' reports.
Akinmade said Bankole, who spoke in his native Yoruba language, told Ekiti electorate that if they were afraid of threats as being bandied even in the press, "the government would do everything within the law, including the possibility of calling in soldiers to deal with electoral malpractice or violence from any trouble-maker, be they in PDP, AC or any other source.
"His assurance of adequate security measure, including the possibility of calling in soldiers was hypothetical on the condition of possible breakdown of law and order, a condition that may become real with violent clashes and threats already rife on the campaign trail," he said.
The Campaign for Democracy (CD) insists that elections generally fall within the responsibility of the Police and not the Armed Forces. "It is antithetical to democratic conduct for civil authorities to use soldiers to terrorise the people for political gains.
"This is an admission of the rejection of the PDP which has messed up the polity and has not made any success of any of the items on the seven-point agenda to attract the votes of the people through persuasion."
In a statement, CD President, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, said it was also a tacit admission by the Umaru Musa Yar'Adua government that it had failed, as it cannot handle elections in 64 wards without the use of soldiers.
Okei-Odumakin said the constitution of Nigeria is clear on how troops can be deployed. The President cannot move soldiers to any part of the country without a resolution to that effect by the Senate. "As of today, there is no condition warranting the deployment of troops than the morbid fear of a party that has always relied on manipulation to take power which it has never used for the benefit of the people but the selfish and corrupt interests of its members."
Yesterday, supporters of AC in the state trooped to the streets of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, for a symbolic sweeping of the alleged desecration of the values of the people by the PDP.
The party supporters led by the state chairman, Chief Jide Awe, said the sweeping of the streets amounted to cleaning Ekiti of the strange and anti-democratic values brought to it by the leaders of the PDP who were in the state last Saturday to launch their party campaign for the re-run governorship election in the state.
The AC members, who trekked for half a kilometre from Fajuyi Park before converging at Okeyinmi Junction, where they were addressed by the party's leaders, including the governorship candidate of the party, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, sang anti-PDP songs.
They also condemned Bankole's declaration that soldiers would be deployed in Ekiti for the repeat election.
Similarly, the AC members faulted Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola's comment that the PDP would win the re-run election at all cost, saying: "His anti-democratic posture would soon catch up with him."
Another socio-political group, Ekiti Youth Democratic Movement (EYDM), has condemned Bankole's statement that soldiers would be used for the re-run election.
The group, in a statement yesterday, described Bankole's pronouncement as unbecoming of a democrat, saying the people of the state would not be intimidated by soldiers or thugs imported to rig the election."
Its co-ordinator, Mr. James Okunola and secretary, Mr. Jide Awe, said: "It is an outburst or threat borne out of inexperience as a politician and youthful exuberance. We know his anti-democratic involvement in the Ogun State political crisis, he should not import such to Ekiti.
"Speaker Bankole should go and read the history of election in Nigeria and he will be informed not to make such anti-democratic statement. His tirade and unguarded utterance is unwarranted and unbecoming of a public officer of the calibre of the Speaker of the Lower Chamber moreover when the nation is not at war."
After an emergency meeting, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has asked its members to take part in the Ekiti State governorship election billed for April 21 to check the country from sliding into one party state.
In a statement issued in Enugu, CNPP National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, said events in the country had proved that the ruling PDP lacks ideas to run the nation and must be rejected at the polls.
