Tribunal: PDP Can’t Get Victory Through the Backdoor, Says Fayemi’s Campaign Chief

By Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

Hours after the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the July 14 Governorship election, Prof Kolapo Olusola, filed his petition against the winner, Dr Kayode Fayemi, calling for the nullification of the exercise, the Deputy Director General of the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Council, Hon. Bamidele Faparusi, has described the petition as an exercise in futility.

He said the election reflected the will of Ekiti people and that not even the petition filed by Olusola or any other party can upturn the
verdict.

The former House of Representatives member added that the party will assemble highly experienced legal team that would confront the PDP and its candidate and prevent them from getting victory through the
backdoor.

Fayemi, the candidate of the APC, polled a total of 197, 459 to trounce Olusola, who got 178, 121 votes in the keenly contested election.

In the petition filed by the head of his legal team, Mallam Yusuf Ali, Olusola prayed the tribunal to declare him the winner of the July 14 election , predicating this on the fact that he polled the highest number of lawful votes in the poll.

Responding to the action, Faparusi, in a statement in Ado Ekiti on Saturday appealed to APC members across the state to be peaceful and see the present legal challenge as one that won’t yield any fruitful result.

The APC chieftain described the election as the best in Ekiti since the advent of democracy in 1999, saying the allegations of ballot
stuffing and snatching, falsification of results and brazen abuse of powers by APC to win the election only existed in the demented
imagination of the PDP as a political party.

He said: “Prof Olusola asking that he be declared winner of an election he lost was a tall dream that won’t be realised. The whole world could attest to the credibility of the election.

“Several credible observer groups with the exception of those sponsored by Governor Ayodele Fayose had given the Independent
National Electoral Commission(INEC) a thumb up over its transparency in the conduct of the election. The European Union and other global bodies that monitored the governorship election praised the electoral commission for doing a great job.

“Since the advent of democracy in 1999, this election stood out to be the most keenly contested with the winner defeating the loser with a marginal edge of 19, 338 votes. This confirmed and substantiated how transparent INEC had been in the conduct of this election.

“No election can be deemed to have been perfect, but substantially, the exercise could be adjudged to have been conducted in line with the 1999 constitution and the dictate of the Electoral Act.

“If one dissects the trends of the winning across the 16 local governments, the two parties were having marginal edge ahead of others, but eventually APC won in 12 local governments and PDP won four.

“If the PDP could be bold to tag an election where the winner won 12 councils and loser four, what would the people call the June 21, 2014 governorship election, where Governor Fayose defeated the incumbent governor, Dr. Fayemi in all the 16 local governments?

“No one can abridge Prof Olusola’s rights to seek redress in court, this steps remains the most civilised and recognised resort in electioneering process, but we in the APC are confident that it is going to be a futile efforts, because Dr. Fayemi got the mandate
through credible means.”