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Ekiti Poll Was A Charade---Shehu Sani

A northern-based rights activist and President of the Civil Rights Congress (CRC) of Nigeria, Mallam Shehu Sani, yesterday alleged that the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State could not be said to be free and fair as being adjudged.
Sani, in a statement in Kaduna, said the election could not be free and fair when the federal government used security operatives to harass and intimidate political opponents to favour the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mr. Ayo Fayose.

The CRC boss, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), noted that in the run-off to the election, key figures, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), campaign managers as well as government functionaries were arrested, adding that a credible elections must be devoid of the use of force or coercion in any way.
The pro-democracy activist warned that what happened in the state must not happen in Osun State during the forthcoming governorship poll.
“The PDP did not win in Ekiti State they captured Ekiti state through the strategy of force and inducement. Governor Kayode Fayemi’s acceptance of defeat is more for peace than for justice. Those in Abuja reveling in the victory over APC are simply toasting to the cruel triumph of might over morality. The will of the people cannot be said to be freely expressed with a record military while planes were hovering over the skies of Ekiti and soldiers on the ground,” he said.
He urged Nigerians to rise up against what he described as ‘forces against democracy’ and be prepared to defend their votes against the predatory ruling party backed by the state apparatus.”
Sani, a senatorial aspirant on the platform of the APC in Kaduna State, said democratic and progressive forces in Nigeria should not tolerate the repeat of the Ekiti state episode in 2015.
He said: “Those who accepted, endorsed and embraced Ekiti elections as free and fair are by extension giving their imprint to the adoption of it in the 2015 general election.
“We fought and ended military rule in Nigeria. We will not tolerate its return through the backdoor. Drafting the military to supervise elections positions them to partisanship, drags them into murky political waters and which negatively affect their professionalism.
Source: Thisday
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