Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has said that President Mohammadu Buhari must be held accountable for the violence and loss of lives in Rivers State rerun elections. The governor said, “Members of Buhari’s party, All Progressives Congress (APC), are emboldened to unleash violence on the people of Rivers State and other states in Nigeria because they know that the president won’t lift a finger provided his party members are the ones perpetrating evil.” Fayose also said, “those who called the Ekiti State governorship election in which soldiers and other security agents made sure that there was no violence, no live was lost during and after the election and no ballot was snatched (EkitiGate) should be asked what the Rivers election in which eight people were killed and several others injured will be called.”
Through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said that Buhari’s way was to protect his party people, and his Hausa /Fulani tribe, hence their boldness to perpetrate evil. The governor maintained that Buhari’s culpability in the killings in Rivers State and the manner Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has destroyed the legacy of free, fair and transparent elections bequeathed on Nigeria by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government under former President, Goodluck Jonathan, was not in doubt.
His words: “Can President Buhari fold his arms if the people being killed are from Daura in Katsina State? Is it that any soul that is not a Fulani is not important to the President?” The governor, who challenged the Military authority to probe the roles of soldiers in the Rivers State election, added, “If they could probe soldiers who participated in the Ekiti State governorship election despite their commendation by the international community for providing a safe environment free of major incidents, one wonders what they are going to do in the case of Rivers State in which people were allegedly killed by soldiers. “What are they going to call Rivers election since they called that of Ekiti State EkitiGate? Are they going to call Rivers election in which several people were shot dead allegedly by security agents, election inconclusive, fake Results Sheets produced by INEC RiversBuhariAmaechiGate?” While calling for the immediate sack of INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the governor said Nigerians must ask questions as to how INEC produced results sheets of over 230 polling units with PDP omitted. He said that if nothing was done to INEC as presently constituted, 2019 will spell doom for the country’s democracy, adding that “If 2019 elections will not be messed up and be made inconclusive, lovers of democracy in the country must not keep silent on the mess our elections have become under Professor Yakubu.”