Former Spokesperson of Afenifere and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirants in Ekiti State, Dayo Adeyeye has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be more vigilant on the activities of its officials, if it must fulfill its promise of conducting a free and fair election in the State on June 21, 2014.
The governorship aspirant, who said he was impressed by the INEC’s presentations at the Stakeholders Forum in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, pointed out that; “one of the greatest impediments to free and fair elections in Nigeria is INEC personnel.”
In a release issued in Ado-Ekiti Thursday, Adeyeye reminded INEC how four of its staff in Ekiti State were caught while tampering with already thumb printed ballot papers, in what is now known as ‘Ibo lehin ibo’ (voting after voting).
He lamented that up till now, nothing has been done to the culprits.
Adeyeye, who declared that the PDP was sure of winning the June 21 election in a free and fair atmosphere, said; “As good as INEC plans for the elections are, the possibility of the process being manipulated through unscrupulous staff of the commission cannot be ruled out and experience has shown that.
“If four INEC officials could be paid N180,000 to tamper with used ballot papers so as to get PDP votes voided at the Tribunal during a ballots recount, it is not impossible for the same people who paid these INEC staff to perpetrate ‘Ibo lehin ibo’ to also pay them to manipulate the electoral processes.
“INEC should therefore be more vigilant on the activities of its personnel if it must conduct a credible election in Ekiti on June 21.”
While maintaining his call for the removal of the Director General of the INEC Electoral Institute, Prof Abubakar Momoh, Adeyeye said; “We can’t afford a man who witnessed in favour of Governor Kayode Fayemi at the Tribunal and was also a member of the Governing Board of the governor’s Non Governmental Organisation, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), as the head of an institution saddled with the training of personnel responsible for the conduct of Ekiti elections.”
