PDP Perfected Rigging against Fayemi a Week before Election, Aluko Insists

• Denies dismissal as university lecturer

Olakiitan Victor in Ado Ekiti

The embattled former Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ekiti State chapter, Dr. Tope Aluko, has again thrown more lights on the alleged rigging of the June 21, 2014, governorship election, revealing that the electoral malfeasance was perfected a week before the poll.

The current state Governor, Ayodele Fayose, of the PDP defeated the then incumbent, Dr. Kayode Fayemi in the hotly contested election.

The embattled PDP scribe insisted that sensitive materials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) like ballot papers

and result sheets were delivered to PDP chieftains to allow for the manipulation of the poll long before the first ballot was cast.

Appearing on a special interview programme yesterday evening on Adaba 88. 9 FM monitored by journalists in Ado Ekiti, Aluko claimed that the electoral materials were delivered through Akure Airport and taken to a hotel owned by Fayose’s political ally, now top government official of his cabinet.

He alleged that INEC ballot papers were thumb printed and result sheets filled by PDP members which gave their party the edge long before the electorate went to the polls.

Aluko explained that operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) led by a female officer stormed the hotel and arrested the PDP members perfecting the rigging but they were released within three hours following the intervention of the federal government.

“Ask him (Fayose) why did former Commissioner for Works, Kayode Oso,
run away? Commissioner for Finance, Toyin Ojo told his interrogators about the finances of the state including the N5.2 billion refunded on the Ado-Ifaki road project carried out by Fayemi.

“You will recall that Fayose had earlier denied receipt of the N5.2 billion refund but the revelation by Ojo while in custody now made him (Fayose) to divert the money for flyover construction because Ojo told them that Oso was in a better position to explain on the refund collected for road,” Aluko said.

Responding to questions on the threat of the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Owoseni Ajayi, that state government would prosecute him (Aluko) for alleged perjury, Aluko said Ajayi too is liable for prosecution for his alleged role in an attack on the court to prevent the delivery of a ruling on a perjury case involving Fayose.

Speaking on the purported reconciliation meeting with Fayose recently at a Lagos hotel, Aluko said he never went to meet Fayose as believed in some quarters but it was the governor and former state House of Assembly factional Speaker, Dele Olugbemi, who barged into a meeting he was holding with some PDP leaders.

He said: “Olugbemi and Fayose barged into the meeting venue. Olugbemi is a pathological liar. He had lied against Fayose, he lied against the APC, he lied against the PDP and he is just working for the money and appointment he had just received from Fayose.

“I did not create a scene at the venue of the meeting because able-bodied men had been stationed around and my wife was afraid of what could happen. Fayose held my clothes that I should not talk when I wanted to say something.”

The PDP secretary contended that his disagreement with the governor started with his (Fayose’s) alleged derailment from the plan and blueprint for the development of the state and not because he was not made his Chief of Staff.

Aluko urged Nigerians to pray for him because of alleged plans to assassinate him, saying: “I need the prayer of Nigerians so that I will not fall prey to the evil machine of those planning to kill me by all means because of the truth I told Nigerians.”
Meanwhile, the estrange PDP scribe showed up for the ongoing verification of pensioners at the Ekiti State University thereby dispelling the insinuation that he was dismissed from the university for various academic misdemeanour.

The former Head of Department of Business Administration in the university displayed his EKSU 2016 Pensioner’s Verification Certificate to journalists and others present.
Aluko’s pensioner’s number is 158 with his year of retirement being 2010.

The state governorship poll whistleblower said his verification is an evidence that he is a retiree at the state-owned university contrary to the claim of the state government that he was dismissed from service.

Aluko said: “Every three years, you have to appear at EKSU to show that you are alive and that you are a retiree at the university. I have my (pensioner) certificate to show that I am a retiree now.

“The (Fayose) government has been saying I was sacked, but this is an evidence that I was not sacked. I built the Department (of Business Administration) from scratch and rose to become the head.

“I was never given any query, while government people came here looking for my file in a desperate bid to implicate me. I retired here as a Senior Lecturer and I lectured here for 13 years.

“I served on many committees and I was returned as HOD for many times.”