Governor Ayodele Fayose during a PDP rally.
Stunning revelations have emerged on how the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rigged Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state into power in the state.
Leadership reports that the secretary of the state’s PDP, Dr Temitope Aluko opened a can of worms on the saga, where he also gave an insider account of how the military was used to rig the 2014 Ekiti state gubernatorial poll in the state.
Aluko, the chief returning officer who signed the results for the election, also disclosed how former president, Goodluck Jonathan gave Fayose $37 million cash to prosecute the governorship election.
Aluko who spoke in Abuja, noted that he was forced to come forward with the revelations because he was betrayed by Fayose.
He informed that he was part of Fayose’s inner cycle during the election, while alleging that Jonathan initially gave the governor a first tranche of $2 million in March 2014 for the primary election, adding that this cash was collected at the NNPC headquarters in Abuja and was taken to Fayose’s private house in Abuja before it was shipped to Ekiti.
He said: “Immediately after the primary election, we collected. another $35 million from Jonathan on June 17, 2014. The money was brought to us by the former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.
Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state and former president Goodluck Jonathan
“We all assembled at the front office of Spotless Hotel, Ado Ekiti, owned by Fayose. Thereafter, the cash was taken to a Bureau De Change in Onitsha where it was converted to N4.7 billion.”
He alleged further that the governor got about N3 billion cash from Senator Buruji Kashamu in 2013 for revive the PDP in Ekiti State while also giving account on how the military was used to win the election.
“The former President agreed with Fayose and summoned a security meeting at the Presidential Villa for the purpose of the election.
“Those at the meeting were the former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh; then Chief of Army Staff, Lt.Gen. Kenneth Minimmah; and former National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu.
“Others included Fayose, Senator Iyiola Omisore, then Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan and Obanikoro.
“At that meeting, the former President made it clear to the ex Chief of Defence Staff that Fayose would stand for him (as Commander-In-Chief) in terms of providing security for the election,” Aluko explained further.
Confessing further, Aluko alleged that Fayose, who banked on Jonathan’s directive, had approached the former Commander of the Army Brigade in Akure, Brigadier General Dikko to handle the election for the PDP.
“But Gen. Dikko did not give us audience. He stated bluntly that he would not be available for such operation. So Fayose sponsored a petition against him which led to his replacement with Brig. Gen. Aliyu Momoh who was amenable to our plans,” the PDP scribe said, adding that it led to his replacement.
He explained also that a total of 64 PDP stalwarts, who had knowledge of their local governors, were selected to supply information on opposition members.
Aluko said: “They gave detailed information regarding names and locations of opposition members in all the local governments, the various routes, areas of strength and weaknesses of the PDP in the 16 local governments.
“Today, most of these 64 hatchet men are members of the Senate, House of Representatives, state House of Assembly, commissioners, local government chairmen, special advisers and the rest.
“We went into the election with 1040 recognised soldiers and another batch of 400 unrecognised soldiers brought from Enugu by Sen. Andy Uba.
“In addition, we raised 44 special strike teams brought in Toyota Hilux buses from Abuja and Onistah. We made special stickers for the vehicles that conveyed members of the strike team and black hand bands for each of them.
“Each strike team was made up of 10 members headed by a soldier and comprising soldiers, policemen, DSS operatives and Civil Defence corps. They were detailed to attack and arrest prominent APC chieftains in all the local governments.
“We set up anchorage, mainly residential houses, in every local government where the strike team members collected their welfare and other allowances.
“To encourage the strike team members, we gave them orders to share money and other valuables they could lay their hands on in the houses of APC chieftains they raided.
“Then we set up detention camps, mainly in primary schools where most of the APC chieftains were detained. Others were detained in police stations where the DPOs were friendly with us. We let them off after the election was over.
“A day to the election, we used the military to block all routes in the local governments and prevented APC chieftains, including former Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi from coming into Ekiti.
“So we ensured that no APC chieftain was insight on election. We provided polling agents for the APC in most of the polling units so we had no problem getting them to sign election results in the units.
“All these local and foreign observers that described the election free and fair only witnessed the voting exercise on election day without knowing what transpired before the voting.”
Speaking on why he is making the revelations now, Aluko stated: “Before the election, Fayose, Femi Bamishile and I jointly swore with the Holy Bible on a sharing formula after we must have won the election. We agreed that Fayose would be governor, Bamishile his deputy and I Chief of Staff.
“But the moment he got into office, Fayose reneged on the agreement and left me in the lurch. More worrisome is the fact that Fayose has derailed from the original Ekiti project we envisaged.”
Only a few days ago, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state alleged that Fayose was suffering from psychological stress which prompted him to make seditious remarks threatening to bring down President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The APC, which was reacting to a threat issued by Governor Fayose over the weekend to bring down President Buhari’s administration if anything happened to him, following the release of military panel report on Ekiti governorship polls, implored Nigerians to ignore the governor’s perceived seditious remarks.
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