Ekiti State PDP decries appeal court’s emphasis on use of military in election

EKITI State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has deplored the appeal court judges’ alleged emphasis on the use of military during the last governorship election.

 The secretary of the party, Dr. Tope Aluko, made the assertion in a statement in Ado Ekiti yesterday, saying that the appeal court panel deliberately dissipated much energy on the use of military during the election in manner which has aroused the PDP’s suspicion.

  Aluko who said that the party would appeal the aspect of the judgment, saying that although the appeal court dismissed the petition by the  All Progressives Congress (APC)  against Governor Ayo Fayose, “we still find it difficult to understand why a court whose justices dismissed a petition for lack of merit should now go ahead condemning those who made it impossible for Dr. Kayode Fayemi and his party APC to rig the election.”

   The PDP wondered why the interest and emphasis “in the area where the use of military to check abuse of the election was discarded by the lower tribunal.”

   It went on: “During the governorship elections in Edo, Ondo, Anambra and Osun states this same military was maximally used during and after the elections nobody raised any question because the states were won by other parties. The APC didn’t go to court then to challenge the use of military because it favoured it and no judge either at the lower or upper tribunals have ever raised eyebrows like the one being suspiciously raised by these justices that ruled on the APC petition against Governor Fayose on Monday.

  “We want to say emphatically that the use of military in all the elections mentioned including that of Ekiti has been so positive and it has reduced exhibition of violence that used to characterise elections in Nigeria which the APC has applauded and acknowledged whenever it favoured their party.”

   Aluko added that “the Ekiti election was adjudged to be the fairest, freest and most credible one that has been conducted in the resent time by both local and international observers that monitored it; then it now becomes embarrassing for the justices at the appeal court to be hammering on the same issue that made the peaceful conduct of the election to be possible as devastation.”