Contoversy over the June 21,2014 Ekiti governorship election is still raging almost two years after. A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr.Tope Aluko, who played a key role in the victory of Mr. Ayodele Fayose as governor, is divulging what his party did to compromise the integrity of the poll. He spoke at the weekend on Channels Television.
In fact senator Iyiola was very right. It was not a scheduled meeting. They were just in the middle of Ayo Fayose’s room. The strike teams were a mixture of DSS (Department of State Security), the military and MOPOL (Mobile Police). Yes, that’s about all.
Aluko presented documents purportedly showing names and ranks of the strike team and the people they were supposed to hit.
Not as in to kill but to just demoralise them; detain them, so that once you take out the opposition leaders and you take out the cash, they wanted to give their supporters, then that would be all. That was the agreement we had then. There were 44 teams, made up of about 11 per truck (Hilux vans) and they were supposed to have a contact person there. A contact person was somebody in the PDP that was supposed to show them where the opposition leaders. Before that time in May, we had 64 people coming together.
They brought in 1040 soldiers under the leadership of Brig Momoh and then a strong politician too, who somebody identified as Ubah but not Senator Ubah (Andy), brought in from Enugu another 400 (soldiers). With that, we had more than enough to cage the whole opposition in the state. What we did was to block all the routes leading into the state and to block all the APC-controlled areas.
Developments before the election
Let me tell you what happened. There was a small riot in mid-May in Iyin-Ekiti, my home town. And I think Governor Fayemi called in the military from Akure to quell the riot. And it was at that point that we realised that our plans were not going to work out well, because we did not have the control of the military. That was when we petitioned the former GOC so that he would be taken away from Akure and he was replaced him with a more amenable GOC in Brig-Gen. Momoh. That decision was taken at the last security meeting. It was there that the then President told Minimah, the former Defence chief, with others in attendance that Ayo Fayose would stand in for him. He said Áyo Fayose would stand in for me in Ekiti politics.’ He didn’t sy more than that, but of course to all the military men as the C-in-C; that they had to provide an amenable Brigade Commander to join the DSS personnel that were brought in from outside the state. Now, when you look at the strike team, we had 44 teams. In fact, all the van that organised for the 44-member strike team members were actually parked in my place, in my house. I was the party secretary and the chief returning officer, as well as the chairman of security and intelligence and also the co-ordinator of the campaign.
By Wednesday (June 18, 2014), the strike team members were distributed to the 16 local government areas and each council had an anchorage, who was a key leader in the PDP. All this you can see in the slide.
The slides showed the residence of some leaders and how the military laid the siege
Explaining…..Those were the routes that were blocked. They were about 10 and when you looked at those special polling units, we are not talking about all polling units in a ward. It’s either high volume polling units or polling units that were very weak or those that they must operate on. And when you come down, you’ll see that the man that was the contact person is now the current speaker; that’s Pastor Kola Oluwawole. He was PRO (Public Relations Officer) in my own SWC (State Working Committee) and the state PRO then. He was the one that co-ordinated that. And then when you look at the other people there with their numbers, they were the ones that were manning the routes and taking care of the team. Let’s go now to where we have the team. Let’s go to the residences, we’ll call it the anchorage.
In some local governments depending on the size, those are the key residences where they were anchored, where their welfare was taken care of. You notice that those people in charge, one is now a senator, one is a commissioner and one is a member of House of Reps, somebody has moved out.
We had them in their anchorages three days before. They had targets that they were supposed to destroy. They went to houses of APC members and the people who were disgruntled with us. They were in PDP then but we didn’t want to take any chances. So, they were also visited as opposition members and they were harassed. At times, they were arrested and kept in special detention camps in primary schools or friendly police stations till Sunday morning. The strike force members operated till Sunday morning. And by Sunday morning when there was no opposition in sight again We told members of the team that they should keep any cash found on the opposition leaders.
On whether INEC manipulated the process
Answer: No, no, no no. INEC was not manipulated? INEC was settled. I don’t want to go into the issue of INEC.
On why he won’t discuss INEC role
No, because we’re talking about Ekitigate. Okay let me tell you what happened. INEC was the second option. INEC was the second option because by May in Abuja, we had given N1 billion to INEC for the two states, for the two states. And it was not Jega. Jega was not involved. Jega was not involved? It was to ensure that the returning officers from FUTA were our own. And I can give you the names of the two people who coordinated it. One was Oluwawole and the other was Adekanbi. They had to look for amenable returning officers from FUO.
On the integrity of lecturers
You are just saying that. They didn’t even know what was happening. The funding came for the primaries. It came from Ifeanyi Ubah who we met at the NNPC Towers in Abuja. He gave us $2 million on behalf of Mr. President. It was in cash and not too clean. $100 bills and he (Ubah) said that they had to retain 300,000 as courier fees for those people in the presidency.
On the implication of mentioning peoples names
Because I have to tell the truth and because I was there. I was privy to the process. I was there at the NNNP Towers. I was there with the Rt. Hon. Femi Bamisile. He gave the money in cash, less $300, 0000. And we now took the cash to Prince and princess into his house and he put it in his wardrobe. And he said we should go down to Ekiti for the primaries, to get them ready for the primaries. I was the head of the team, the head of the pro-primaries. That is the funding..(points to slide). You can see that that is the funding, that is Ekiti East and you can see that that is Ayodele Fayose’s signature. Let the slide go down.
On how much was spent on the election
It was $35 million and it came in January, not June 17. I was privy to all the arrangements. Obanikoro was just the courier. It came in from the former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki. The money was given from the former NSA in cash and by a courier. Because we asked for security and we asked for funds and Mr. President said everything would be made available. We had a meeting on Thursday, Wednesday, or Thursday. I think Wednesday 18th or so. And that is the money given out to the strike team. It was N1 million per van per day and they worked for three days, that is N132 million. And then for those people that blocked the road, it was N4 million for the period and we’re talking about 16 local governments, making it N64 million.
On the involvement of Hon Kareem Abisodun
He was at the meeting thatwas attended by Koli. But, he was more of a personal friend to… If he says he was part of the security meeting, that’s a different thing. He wasn’t at the security meeting but he was at the meeting in Ekiti, in Spotless Hotel. Or Koli had lied about his presence? If I’m saying he was there and Koli said he was there. I don’t have any issue with Hon Kareem. I’m just telling the truth to the whole world so that we’ll know how to manage our democracy.
Implications of blowing the whistle
Because I was part of it does that mean I shouldn’t have any proper legacy that I’ll leave to my children? Why should I be afraid? Have we not done it?