Sodiq Oyeleke
A former Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose, has alleged that dead and sick people were accredited during the South-West Peoples Democratic Party congress held in Osun State on Monday.
The PUNCH had reported that Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja, the candidate backed by the camp of Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, got 343 votes to emerge as new South-West Zonal Vice Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party on Monday.
Dr Eddy Olafeso backed by the camp of Fayose got a total of 330 votes.
But Fayose insisted that the election was rigged while speaking on Channels TV Politics Today programme on Wednesday.
He explained that a former Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mulikat Adeola-Akande, identified those that were dead and sick on the accreditation list.
He said, “The leader of the transport union in Oyo State came to the venue publicly looking for my head. It was public knowledge.
“We compelled them to announce publicly how many people were accredited. They resisted that and said they will announce state-by-state. The norm is for you to announce accreditation and tell us how many people came and how many votes are expected.
“By the accreditation, they initially said Oyo state had 115 people list, 104 accredited. Out of 104, 82 people voted. At the end of the exercise, the accreditation was 675, publicly announced.
“Ekiti voted first, followed by Ogun, Lagos, Osun then they purposely allowed Oyo to vote last.
“When you look at the alphabet, you will realise that a game was obviously going on.
“In Oyo, they told us 177 were listed. Hon Mulikat protested and said, ‘this man is dead, this man is dead, this man is dead, this man is sick, this one is abroad, this one is aged’. They came back and told us 165. This is the game going on in the entire process.”
When asked if he raised these objections, Fayose said, ‘Yes, they were raised.”
He, however, said his camp chose to overlook rigging because he was not ready to defect to another party.
“I have accepted this result not because they won but because I am one of the people that can’t defect to another party,” he added.