By Ayo Kehinde
The candidate of the People Democratic Party in the ongoing governorship election in Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi, has expressed displeasure over the conduct of the exercise.
Speaking shortly after he cast his vote at Apoi Ward II, Unit 004 in Kiribo, Ese Odo Loc Government Area, Ajayi accused the Independent National Electoral Commission and the security agencies of compromising the election in favour of the All Progressives Congress.
Agboola said a preliminary report across all the local government areas has shown the election so far was far below the standard, asking the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu to resign for conducting the most corrupt election in Nigeria’s political history.
He said, “If INEC cannot successfully organise an election in just one state, then you must know that we are running into anarchy in Nigeria. I have been getting reports across the state and it is the same, including me. I am a victim here in my unit and I want to say it is deliberate on the part of the REC and the INEC. Don’t forget we have said earlier that we don’t trust Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola who is the REC; she can’t be fair.
“The system is compromised and there are complaints everywhere in the state including vote-buying, BVAS not working, and don’t forget the machine is a rigging tool for them. It is a very shameful exercise. I think Nigerians should just call on INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, if he can’t do the job, he should honourably resign because the system is compromised, this is sad.
“Under Professor Attahiru Jega as INEC chairman, our electoral process was getting to that international standard but Professor Yakubu has drawn us back. This is sad and Nigerians are not happy.
”From my community here, the military operatives deploy more men to this area and I would take it up with the brigade commander. They can’t intimidate the voters. How do you station seven to 10 armed soldiers; we are not at war here!
”The system is not perfect, things are not working and it took more than 10 minutes before the BVAS could accredit me. Despite the intimidation, people were willing to vote because they are frustrated already with things in the state and the country.”
