Why I can’t join APC, by Fayose, says ‘Ken Nnamani must quit as Electoral Reform Committee Chairman’

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Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has said he cannot join the All Progressives Congress (APC), even if he has to leave his current party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Fayose, who spoke at a gathering in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, said the practice of use and dump adopted by the leadership of the APC would not allow him contemplate moving into the party.
According to a press statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday, the governor cited the case of the National Leader of the APC, Senator Bola Tinubu, who worked tooth and nail for the victo‎ry of the party in the 2015 general elections in the country and who was subsequently abandoned by those he helped to put in power.
“Some people have been making overtures to me to join the APC, but I cannot join them. With what have they repaid somebody like Asiwaju Tinubu? He worked and helped the party to secure victory but has been dumped. That is not a party I would be interested in joining. 
“One thing I would not allow is for anybody to rubbish our leaders in the South-West. Our leaders, including Asiwaju Tinubu must be accorded their due respect, as any attempt to rubbish them will be taken as a slap on the entire Yoruba race,” he added.
The clarification by the governor came on the heel of crisis rocking the PDP at the national level in which Senators Ahmed Maka‎rfi and Ali Modu Sheriff are locked in battle over the national chairmanship seat of the party.
This is just as the governor said his administration would complete the rehabilitation of the federal Ado-Itawure Road before the burial of the late Military Governor of the old Western Region, Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo. 
He also promised to rehabilitate the Ifaki-Omuo Road, another Federal Government road, to make access to the state more pleasurable.
On the need to ensure coordinated development for the state, Fayose said a master plan for Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, would be worked out.
He noted that the government would need the support of landlords and property owners, as the government would not want a situation whereby indiscriminate physical development would later turn the town to an eyesore.
He promised that a Landlords’ Summit would be conveyed to aggregate the opinions and input of landlords to the evolution of the master plan.
Meanwhile, Fayose has called for the immediate
resignation of former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, as chairman of the Electoral Reform Committee and allow a non-partisan person to take over, saying “if the federal government is serious about electoral reform, Senator Nnamani, a card carrying member of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) won’t head the Electoral Reform Committee.”

The governor, who also said there was nothing wrong with the country’s
electoral system, said; “It was the same electoral system that
produced the present APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari, in
an election adjudged as relatively free, fair and credible. So what
happened to the system after May 29, 2015 that this present government
took over? How did we get to this level of inconclusive and
questionable elections in which the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) and security agencies appear to have become part of
the ruling party?”

In his presentation at the public hearing on constitution and
electoral reform held at Ogun State Cultural Centre, Abeokuta, Fayose said; “Even when it inherited a working system that
conducted elections adjudged as free and fair by local and
international communities, INEC has failed consistently to replicate
the inherited working system due to overzealousness and rabid passion
to work as appendage of the federal government.

“Imagine an election that is ongoing, only for INEC to postpone
counting of votes by midnight, with the party agents driven away. Any
result announced in the morning has lost any credibility and
legitimacy and cannot represent the will of the people.”

The governor, who was represented by the Chairman, Ekiti State House
of Assembly Committee on Information, Dr Samuel Omotoso pointed out
that “The only time this country made an attempt at a reliable
electoral reform was during the tenure of President Umaru Yar’Adua who
appointed retired Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Uwais as
the chairman. This singular move gave the panel credibility,
widespread acceptability and massive supports from all over the
country and across political divides.

“Such cannot be said of this panel that is overshadowed with massive
moral burdens and conflict of interest as a result of the chairman
being a card carrying member of a political party called APC.”

He said; “Senator (Dr) Ken Nnamani, being the South-East regional
leader of APC is incapable of rising above primordial and party
sentiments to give Nigerians anything different from electoral
inconclusiveness that we have at the moment.

“Any reform from such encapsulation can as well be said to be dead on arrival.”

Speaking further, Governor Fayose described INEC under the present APC
government as the champion of electoral malpractices, saying “INEC and
security agencies need to purge themselves of all these putrid
behaviours and face the reality of modern day democracy.

“As Governor of Ekiti State, I have no reservation about reviewing and
reforming our electoral process but I am reluctant about the sincerity of purpose deploy each time we display such political hallucinations under the guise of reforms, this has amounted severally to playing to the gallery and this committee just like others that have embarked on several wild goose chases in the past is not likely to be different.
“When those who are to supervise an election take over the process and turn themselves to interested parties rather than rise above board, then we breed nothing other than chaos, pandemonium, mayhem, confusion and disorganisation of the whole process.
“We all know those who commit crimes during the elections but this same people are protected using the police, who is supposed to ensure orderliness and legal consequences for electoral infractions. The police would rather arrest and prosecute the victims of electoral malpractices and violence while releasing the actual aggressors due to the relationship of these offenders to the government in power.
“The penchant for disorder by the umpire has got to a state of obsessive compulsive disorder, in the sense that rather than ensure sincerity of purpose within the system, what we have is deceit, flippancy and double standards.
“Therefore, there is no gainsaying that this electoral review body is not needed until the panel is equitable, non-partisan and devoid of influence from the powers that be. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands.”

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