Governor Ayo Fayose has said the allegation by the former Ekiti State Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tope Aluko, that the military was used to influence the outcome of the June 21, 2014 governorship election in the state was another ploy in the fruitless efforts by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rubbish the mandate freely given him by the people of the state.
He said Aluko was beclouded by his desperation to seek revenge against Fayose because of his refusal to make him his Chief of Staff. He (Aluko) is not mindful of committing the criminal offence of perjury, the statement added.
The governor described as “shameful” that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has refused to accept a scandalous electoral defeat they suffered 19 months ago, asking whether it was also soldiers that rigged the 2015 presidential, senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly elections that the party lost.
In a statement by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, the governor said the election that ushered him to office was conducted about 20 months ago and applauded by the election observers and the international communities, wondered when the opposition would stop licking their wounds.
Fayose said “ all these steps are being taken by the APC to silence me because of my criticism of obnoxious policies of Buhari administration, but I cannot be silenced. If I Ayo Fayose remains the last man standing to put Buhari administration on its toes, I will not look back. Strong opposition is ingredient of virile democracy. I don’t have skeleton in my cupboard. If the APC has any concrete evidence against me, it should give it to the EFCC.”
Fayose added that he felt sorry for Aluko because he had allowed those who rented him to do the very dirty job to destroy him totally therefore bringing shame upon himself and his family.
The Governor continued: “ It is very obvious that those who rented him will keep him at alms lenght believing that what he did to me, he will do same to them.”
He said: “For Aluko to be taken seriously, he must first have to report himself to the police to be tried for perjury and committed to prison for three years since what he is now saying is different from what he said under oath at the Election Tribunal where he was the only witness called by the PDP and Governor Fayose.
“If after giving evidence under oath at the tribunal that the Election was free, fair and credible and that security agents, including soldiers performed their duties creditably, saying something else more than one year after is not fair.
“It is also a demonstration of the fact that given the right offer tomorrow, the same Aluko can also address the press tomorrow to deny all he said today. He can even deny his own existence since he can deny what he said under oath just because he was not made Chief of Staff.
“We know him to be an unstable mind and that was why our party expelled him and others last year. The power of the people is greater than the power of those in authority. There is no way anybody will take through the back door what the people openly denied them through the ballot,” he said.
“From Aluko’s ranting, one could see that he wants to poison our waters because he did not get the position he expected in our administration. He complained that he was not made the Chief of Staff, how could somebody with great lust for money and insatiable drive to jump from one camp to the other be trusted with such a sensitive post. I was advised by well-meaning Ekiti people not to trust him with sensitive positions because of his greed.
“As the state secretary of the party, he was going from one aspirant to the other to collect money, using his position.
When he was at the state-owned university, he was sacked because of certificate racketeering. Pressure was mounted on me not to appoint him otherwise he would put credibility problem on my administration. I therefore offered him another position which he rejected. He thinks he wants to rubbish me and my electoral victory but he is only putting himself and his family to shame.
“if he hopes to reap anything from this wild chase, he will only reap the whirlwind. The APC can never trust him with anything because they know that what he did to me, he would do to them. He was the principal witness of the PDP even up to the Supreme Court where he said under oath that the election was free and fair and now at what point was the election flawed?
“I pity the young man. He is only being used by the opposition and they will soon dump him after they are done with him. I won the election about 20 months ago and they are yet to come to term with the hurricane that hit them. First, they blamed what they called ‘photochromic’ for their defeat.
“When that did not sell, they tried a futile impeachment exercise and also they failed. They came up with a military panel, which could in no way act as an appellate court over the process stipulated by the Electoral Law.
They will probably need to pay INEC to tell Nigerians that an election it conducted, in which an incumbent governor lost in his own local government, was not credible.
“As per his claim that $37 million was given to the governor for the election, the governor got financial support from various sources as it is usual of anyone contesting election and it is not for him to begin to advertise in the media the level of support the governor received from individuals, corporate organisations or groups.
“However, if money belonging to the APC is missing and they suspect that the money was stolen by Dr Goodluck Jonathan to fund Ekiti State governorship election, they can approach the EFCC.”
