A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) based in Ekiti State on Monday affirmed that the July 14 governorship election won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, reflected the wishes of the electorate.
The CSOs, whose representatives were on the field as election observers, said the election was free, fair and credible contrary to claims to the contrary in some quarters.
They urged the people of the state and other Nigerians to be wary of โfake election observersโ hired to impugn on the integrity of the poll.
The three groups โ New Initiative for Social Development (NISD), Centre for Social Justice, Good Health and Community Development (CENSJHOD) and International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) โ condemned vote buying at the poll.
While noting that virtually all parties were complicit in the vote buying saga, the observers said development cannot vitiate the process or taint the overall result of the poll.
Addressing a joint news conference in Ado-Ekiti on Monday, NISD Executive Director, Abiodun Oyeleye, said some groups who called themselves โelection observersโ and discredited the poll were allegedly hired to do the hatchet job.
Reading from the report of the observers, Oyeleye praised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies for improved performance which led to success of the poll.
Oyeleye said the CSOs were part of the Nigerian Election Situation Room, the umbrella body of all election observers accredited by INEC to monitor elections.
He said: โThere were fake observers, those who claim to be observers but reside in the Government House. We have the video clips of those who call themselves observers but were following government officials all around.
โWe had our observers on ground; in fact, in NISD alone, we trained 50 observers. The report of our observers on the field was that the election was free, fair, credible and reflected the election wish of people of Ekiti State.
โAlthough there are incidences of vote buying, all parties induced one way or the other. Some parties did โprepaid,โ others did โsee and buyโ while we had parties that shared electronics before the election.
โThe election represented the will of the people of Ekiti State, with the exception of votes buying we noticed. Many of those who cast their votes were willing to be bought. Some even waited at the polling units waiting for the highest bidder. And our observation showed that all parties were culpable of this.โ
