Dr Temitope Aluko, former secretary of the Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), made startling revelations about the June 21, 2014 governorship election in the state.
Aluko said the poll that brought Governor Ayodele Fayose to power was never an election but a coup against the people because the state was under siege and Federal might was fully deployed to arrest all the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains in the state and detained them in primary school premises till the election was over.
Moreover, all the local and foreign observers who rated the election free and fair in the state were wrong because they did not know that Fayose’s riggers provided all the APC agents in every polling unit and they wrote in figures which they were supplied to write, Aluko said.
He apologized to the people of Ekiti for being one of those who played major roles in rigging Fayose, his friend of over 40 years into power as governor but regretted in retrospect that what took place in the guise of election was a high level manipulation.
Aluko, who spoke to journalists in Abuja on Sunday, said former president Goodluck Jonathan released $37 million to Ayo Fayose, Governor of the state, who trounced the then incumbent Kayode Fayemi in the poll.
He said Musiliu Obanikoro, former minister of state for defence, was the one who brought the money.
Aluko also said Jonathan summoned top military officers, including Alex Badeh, former chief of defence staff, to the Presidential Villa for a meeting on the election.
He explained that he decided to open up on the whole issue because Fayose betrayed him.
“Former President Goodluck Jonathan gave Governor Ayo Fayose $2 million in March 2014 for the primary election,” he said. “Immediately after the primary election, we collected another $35 million from Jonathan on June 17, 2014. The money was brought to us by the former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.
“We all assembled at the front office of Spotless Hotel, Ado Ekiti, owned by Fayose. Thereafter, the cash was taken to a Bureau De Change in Onitsha where it was converted to N4.7 billion.
“The former president agreed with Fayose and summoned a security meeting at the Presidential Villa for the purpose of the election.
“Those at the meeting were the former chief of defence staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh; then Chief of Army Staff, Lt.Gen. Kenneth Minimah; and former National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu.
“Others included Fayose, Senator Iyiola Omisore, then Minister of Police Affairs Jelili Adesiyan and Obanikoro.
“At that meeting, the former president made it clear to the ex-Chief of Defence Staff that Fayose would stand for him in terms of providing security for the election.
“They gave detailed information regarding names and locations of opposition members in all the local governments, the various routes, areas of strength and weaknesses of the PDP in the 16 local governments.
“Today, most of these 64 hatchet men are members of the Senate, House of Representatives, state house of assembly, commissioners, local government chairmen, special advisers and the rest.
“We went into the election with 1,040 recognised soldiers and another batch of 400 unrecognised soldiers brought from Enugu by Sen. Andy Uba.
“In addition, we raised 44 special strike teams brought in Toyota Hilux buses from Abuja and Onitsha. We made special stickers for the vehicles that conveyed members of the strike team and black hand bands for each of them.
“Each strike team was made up of 10 members headed by a soldier and comprising soldiers, policemen, DSS operatives and Civil Defence corps. They were detailed to attack and arrest prominent APC chieftains in all the local governments.
“We set up anchorage, mainly residential houses, in every local government where the strike team members collected their welfare and other allowances.
“To encourage the strike team members, we gave them orders to share money and other valuables they could lay their hands on in the houses of APC chieftains they raided.
“Then we set up detention camps, mainly in primary schools where most of the APC chieftains were detained. Others were detained in police stations where the DPOs were friendly with us. We let them off after the election was over.”
Aluko said based on Jonathan’s directive, Fayose went to solicit the support and participation of former Commander of the Army Brigade in Akure, Brig. Gen. Dikko, to take charge of the election for the PDP.
But Dikko refused to join them and a petition was filed against him and he was replaced. “Gen. Dikko did not give us audience. He stated bluntly that he would not be available for such operation. So Fayose sponsored a petition against him which led to his replacement with Brig. Gen. Aliyu Momoh who was amenable to our plans.”
“A day to the election, we used the military to block all routes in the local governments and prevented APC chieftains, including former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi from coming into Ekiti. So we ensured that no APC chieftain was in sight on Election Day. We provided polling agents for the APC in most of the polling units. So we had no problem getting them to sign election results in the units.
“All the local and foreign observers that described the election as free and fair only witnessed the voting exercise on Election Day without knowing what transpired before the voting.”
