Fayose, APC On War Path Over Saturday’s Council Election

• As Court Delivers Judgment Tomorrow
  UNLESS the Court rules otherwise, the Ekiti State Local Government Election slated for next Saturday, December 19 will be mainly a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) affair, as the main opposition party in the state, All Progressives Congress (APC) is set to boycott the poll.

If Governor Ayodele Fayose goes ahead with his plan, it would not only deal a serious credibility blow on the conduct of the poll, it would also amount to contempt of court, considering the existing suits instituted against the election, the opposition charges.

The legal proceedings are in two phases — the one instituted by APC and the other by a faction of the PDP.
APC instituted two separate motions in a court sitting in Ado-Ekiti to challenge the improper constitution of the Ekiti State Independent Electoral Commission (EKSIEC), claiming that its chairman, Justice Kayode Bamisile (rtd) and others are card-carrying members of the PDP.

The party Chairman, Jide Awe, in an earlier interview with The Guardian maintained that his party is still in court and ‘very optimistic that very soon they’ll get result.’

For the Tunde Olatunde-led PDP faction, it instituted a suit at the High Court, seeking to stop the nomination of fresh candidates for the party and to affirm winners of the party primaries conducted in November 2011, as the valid candidates for the election.
It prayed the court to declare the nomination of another set of candidates by the Idowu Faleye-led faction, which is loyal to the Governor, as unconstitutional, null and void.

But despite the cases and threat of boycott, the governor, last month insisted that the poll would hold as scheduled, noting that it would hold with or without APC.
“Electoral Act is very clear, boycott of election doesn’t nullify the outcome of any election. Just like I have said, we will not compromise anything. We shall allow the people to choose who to govern them. If it is only one political party that is ready to take part in the poll, no problem. Boycotting election has never been used to annul elections in the country.”

The Guardian learnt that there are concerns about this
development, considering the fact that the same legal imbroglio hampered the conduct of the last council election in the state, that was scheduled for February 4, 2011, under former Governor Kayode Fayemi. A Judgment of the Ado Ekiti High Court voided the composition of the then EKSIEC.

It could be recalled that the last council election was held under the administration of former governor Segun Oni in 2008.
In an exclusive interview with the APC chairman, Awe at the weekend, he disclosed that the court would give its verdict tomorrow (Monday, December 14), noting that after the judgment his party would know the next step to take.

When the chairman of the aggrieved faction of the PDP, Olatunde was contacted on phone, he promised to call back to air his view. Several calls later put across to him were not answered.

During the week the governor stated that his party is ready for the poll, adding that it is only the court that can stop the election from holding as scheduled.