The Elections Transparency Group, ETG, has carpeted Kayode Fayemi, the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in Ekiti State, for boasting that Ayodele Fayose, the State Governor, will be caged during the July 14, 2018, election.
Fayemi had said during his campaign rally on Thursday, June 21, 2018, that “We will ensure adequate security for voters on election day because if you are not well protected, the election will not be free, far, credible, transparent, genuine and acceptable.
Fayose cannot threaten or intimidate anybody on the day of the election. Fayose will only be allowed to cast his vote and he will go back to his house in Afao.” Reacting, the ETG, in a statement in Abuja on Friday, June 22, 2018, and signed by its National Coordinator, Alhaji Kazeem Adekunle, described the statement as reckless and capable of casting aspersion on the electoral process.
The group said it was wrong for Fayemi, who is a candidate like many others to have spoken as if he was the Inspector General of Police or the INEC chairman.
The ETG, which called on INEC and the security agencies to clear the air on the statement, asked when it became the duty of a candidate in an election to personalize the conduct of an election as if he is in charge of the election.
That statement; ‘We will ensure adequate security for voters on election day’ is saying that Fayemi is directly in charge of the deployment of security personnel for the election and if that is true, the credibility of the election is already compromised.
We, therefore, call on the international community, especially the United States and the European Union to take note of comments from Fayemi, who is the candidate of the ruling party so as to safeguard the integrity of the election and by extension, democracy in Nigeria.
