Re: The Real Losers Of The Ekiti Election

Dear Sadiq Tukur Rogo,

I read your article "The Real Losers Of The Ekiti Election" on Saharareporters.com [READ HERE: http://bit.ly/1yVenXZ]. I write to shed more light on the issue you discussed in your write-up. Permit me to say that I'll be correcting some untrue statements you made in the write-up.
Am not writing to attack your personal integrity, all I want to do is to clear the air on what really transpired in Ekiti State before, during and after the polls.
You said "The recently concluded Ekiti Election was marred with
voter intimidation, irregularities and above all use of
money, gifts and food items to lure voters to vote in favour
of a certain candidate." Yes, some politicians actually distributed money, gifts and food items to lure voters, but voter intimidation? Irregularities? I am certain both didn't happen. There were actually reports that some people were arrested by security agents, but am certain those arrested might have violated the Electoral Laws, as stipulated by INEC.
In your words "The PDP oriented Security agents intimidated and antagonized the voters and also unconstitutionally, illegally and unjustly detained selective and influential APC leaders in the State that were presumed to be threat to the success of the PDP." This is untrue. The security agents deployed were not biased in the discharge of their duties. And I must commend them for that.
If, like you said, "The mere presence of such massive Security personnel is a threat to the conduction of a peaceful and serene Election" How do we now conduct peaceful, credible elections? We should conduct elections without the presence of security agents?
You said "In addition to that, the PDP used money and other gifts including food items to the poor masses to vote for them. The good and innocent people of Ekiti should have collected whatever was offered and vote for the candidates of their choices, but that was not the case. Surrendering their mandates for a bag of rice was the most saddening of all." Why didn't you also mention the rice the APC and its candidate distributed? You want to claim APC didn't distribute rice? Well, I did you a little favour, I attach pictures to buttress my point. You should be mindful of the fact that Ekiti People are very intelligent. They simply collected the gifts and voted for their choice. Its that simple!
For the benefit of doubt and historical accuracy, Ekiti didn't exchange her choice for gift items, we actually voted in our choice.