A former Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State, Dr. Tope Aluko, has said that the plot to rig the June 21, 2014 governorship election was perfected inside a hotel seven days before the poll.
Aluko alleged that the hotel belonged to a top state government official (name withheld), adding that sensitive materials such as ballot papers and result sheets were delivered to PDP chieftains by the Independent National Electoral Commission at the hotel.He also claimed that the Governor Ayodele Fayose’s administration had received the refund of the N5.2bn spent on the Ado-Ifaki federal highway by the administration of ex-governor Kayode Fayemi.
The state government has, however, continued to deny receiving the refund.
Speaking on an interview programme on Adaba 88.9 FM, Akure, on Wednesday, Aluko claimed that the electoral materials were delivered through the Akure Airport.
He claimed that INEC ballot papers were forged and result sheets filled by some PDP members, which gave the party an edge long before voters went to the polls.
Aluko explained that the operatives of the Department of State Services led by a female officer stormed the hotel and arrested the PDP members perfecting the rigging but that they were released within three hours, following the intervention of the then President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government.
He disclosed that a lorry conveying some of the electoral materials delivered through the Akure Airport was the one intercepted by soldiers led by the recently retired Brig.-Gen. Aliyu Momoh.
According to him, the materials were later released after the officers received an ‘order from above’.
The former PDP chieftain alleged that the N5.2bn refund had been diverted to the Ado Ekiti flyover project, following an investigation conducted by the Department of State Services, the police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Aluko said, “Ask him (Fayose) why did the former Commissioner for Works, Kayode Oso, run away? The Commissioner for Finance, Toyin Ojo, told his interrogators about the finances of the state, including the N5.2bn refunded on the Ado-Ifaki Road project carried out by Fayemi.
“You will recall that Fayose had earlier denied receiving the N5.2bn refund but the revelation by Ojo while in custody now made him (Fayose) to divert the money for a flyover construction because Ojo told them that Oso was in a better position to explain the refund collected on road.”
Aluko said the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Owoseni Ajayi, was liable for his alleged role in an attack on the Ekiti State High Court – to prevent the delivery of a ruling on a perjury case involving Fayose.
Aluko said, “I pity Owoseni Ajayi who is saying that I should be prosecuted because he (Owoseni) was the one who placed a call to Fayose to organise a mob to disrupt the delivery of a ruling by Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi.
“Owoseni told Fayose on the phone that should the judge deliver the ruling on the perjury case, it would go against him (Fayose) and his planned inauguration would be in jeopardy.”
Aluko said he did not fall out with Fayose when he was not made the Chief of Staff, saying he fell out with the governor because he had derailed from delivering the dividends of democracy to the masses.
He said, “Fayose told me that Ekiti people are easy to deceive because by the time you buy them ‘ponmo’ and ‘booli’, you have stolen their hearts’.
It was there that our crisis started, the issue of Chief of Staff was secondary.”
But the Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said Aluko should be disregarded.
“Is he an official of the Federal Ministry of Works? Is he an official of the Federal Government? Anybody making such an allegation should come with proof.”