…We have no interest in the disqualification of anyone- ruling party
Former Chairman of Ado Local Government Area of Ekiti State and the representative of a pressure group, under the aegis of Ekiti Liberation Agenda (ELA), Motunde Fajuyi, has alleged that the State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, have a hand in the alleged removal of the gubernatorial candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Wole Oluyede, from INEC’s official list of candidates.
Addressing journalists on Monday in Ado-Ekiti, Fajuyi alleged that the omission of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate from the published INEC list was not accidental but a deliberate act driven by political manipulation, to stop Oluyede from contesting in the forthcoming June 20 governorship poll in the state.
She claimed that Oluyede had emerged from a free and fair primary election, duly monitored and reportedly cleared by INEC officials, questioning why his name was later excluded without any formal explanation.
Fajuyi further alleged that the decision was influenced by the incumbent state government, claiming that those who approached the INEC Chairman were told he was ‘acting on orders’.
According to her, the controversy surrounding the PDP candidate’s omission compounded earlier grievances within the All Progressives Congress (APC), where she alleged that credible aspirants, including Engineer Kayode Ojo and another female aspirant, Abimbola Olajumoke, were unjustly disqualified without reasons during party primaries.
She said these developments prompted her decision to step aside from partisan politics and join other concerned citizens to form the Ekiti Liberation Agenda, which she described as a platform to resist what she termed systemic injustice and political exclusion in the state.
She called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene, warning that continued silence by authorities could heighten tension in the state.
She demanded the immediate restoration of Oluyede’s name to the INEC list, insisting that failure to do so would deepen political discontent in the state.
She said, “Forget about the lies, forget about the misconceptions of so many things or misrepresentations. I was in the state when it was created. We know a bit about here; we have not had it this bad.
“When politics is being played in such a way that will not encourage the best option, we have issues where the ruling government disqualified one of our daughters and one of our sons, Engineer Kayode Ojo and Jumoke.
“No reasons were adduced for their disqualification; nobody does that. The ruling government is just the ruling party that is taking everybody for granted. I was a member of APC, but because of what happened, I had to step aside.
“And we heard some terrible stories about how Ekiti money was being taken to negotiate things so that there won’t be a contest. And they came around to make a sham of the primaries. It’s not my business because I’m not a party member.
“The party members should complain, not me. But Nigeria is such that shutting your mouth, being muted, has become the trademark, but some of us cannot just be muted. We cannot be shut down or shut up.
“But that’s okay, it’s their internal thing. Now, INEC has published their list, and it omitted the PDP candidate, Dr Wole Oluyede, who had free and fair primaries. If they had issues at their party. I’m not a PDP member either; they know how to treat it internally, but INEC was there. I have read the report of INEC.
“Why will INEC now say they are not listing his name? It has been alleged that the same incumbent here now is the one using INEC because when it got to the INEC chairman, he said he’s acting on orders. In a democracy, some of us talk, even when those who are supposed to talk are not talking; we will talk. It is not for a person to just manipulate anyhow.
“It cannot be treated as a doormat. All these things have been in the papers, in the news. Online, in the print media, in the electronic media. Yet, the leaders there are not doing anything about it.
“Mr President, if he doesn’t want fire to start burning from Ekiti, please take cognisance of what is happening and rectify it. Ekiti is such a place that goodwill will always start from, and the other goodwill will always start from here.
“So, let it be that the powers that be please intervene. We don’t just disqualify the best of our packs. How will you want to be in a position you don’t want to contest? Contest takes you to where you want to lead. So that is the major focus here, and Ekiti has had enough of all this
rigmarole-ing and twisting us. I represent Ekiti Liberation Agenda; we won’t be slaves to anybody again.
“But how can somebody have gone to the primaries in his party and has done it well, and INEC has clarified and has agreed that it was a properly conducted primary, and say you are removing his name. Let his name be restored, or there will be issues.
*Let Amupitan deny it, because I know those who went to him have him on record, and they can come out and testify to that. I’m not PDP. I’m not APC. I’m not at any party. ELA is a brainchild of some of us who felt concerned that it is being maltreated, it’s being shortchanged. And we came together recently, about two months ago, to say enough is enough. But then the PDP thing now became the height of it; it became the abrasion of the wound.
“There was a wound in APC, when some of them were supporting Kayode Ojo, then the wound was abraded by this PDP, non-inclusion, in the whatever. Let them not put fire in Ekiti.
“You can’t be cheating someone, and you expect that person to keep quiet. If they keep quiet forever, then they may die with that situation. That’s why I say, Ekiti will not take this lying low. It’s no threat”, Fajuyi said.
Debunking the allegation, the state publicity secretary of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, Segun Dipe, stated that the ELA Political group is not known in the Ekiti political terrain, and added that the ruling party has no business in the removal of Oluyede
“The ELA that you are talking about is not known in the political participation of any election in Ekiti; they are just meddlesome interlopers.
” It is not possible for APC to mastermind the exclusion of any person, or to disqualify our member, but the national headquarters that conducts the primary has not met some qualifications.
“On Oluyede, go and read the INEC position, it is clear they did not upload at the time, they are supposed to do, so as to be accepted by INEC. So, how did that concern us?
“Again, in PDP, remember they have three different factions, as INEC did observe and told them. Again, how does this concern the Ekiti APC or government?
Not in our interest to get anyone disqualified”, Dipe said.
