As the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State draws near, frontline political parties have been engaged in war of words over alleged acts of violence.

Blame APC for violence—PDP ;  APC is a party of peace—Daramola

Read both interviews in Vanguard Face-off.

By Dapo Akinrefon

Face-off: Ekiti Guber: Blame APC for violence — PDP

Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Ekiti State, Pastor Kola Oluwawole accused the All Progressives Congress, APC, of unleashing mayhem on the PDP.

How true is it that the state government denied  your party  the usage of the stadium?

The refusal of the Ekiti State government to allow the PDP use the stadium for our rally is a demonstration of high level of political intolerance, because the stadium was built with tax payers’ money. It is not a personal property of the governor.

Secondly, it simply demonstrated that the APC is  afraid of the PDP. After all, the governor used the same stadium for his campaign.

What was the excuse given?

The excuse given was that only the governor  has the power to approve the use of the stadium. This was contained in a   letter written to us as a  reply to our request and signed by one Mr. Dada. But embarrassingly, the Commissioner for Information, who reacted to our cries said that the governor had no hand in the matter. He said the power lies with the stadium authorities. You can see that  games were played. We are still exploring other avenues but we have told them if they refuse eventually, we may resort to using the available federal highway which belongs to the Federal Government.

Allegations of violence

I want to state here that the PDP has never resorted to any violence. On the contrary,  APC members have been attacking us. Our members have been attacked and matcheted, by the APC, the records are there. It happened in both Ilejemeje and Ilawe.

But the APC has equally accused your party of being responsible for the attacks on its members and office at Ajilosun

That is fallacious and ridiculous. When Fayose was being welcomed back to Ekiti, APC members attacked anyone wearing shirts that had Ayo Fayose on them. I was the one that alerted the police and called the attention of the Director of the State Security Service that our members were attacked along Ajilosun road. That was the situation. The APC has a record of causing problems and accusing opponents at the same time.

Is it true that some members of your party were the ones who first attacked the convoy of the governor by throwing stones?

That is ridiculous, it is the highest level of fabrication. On that day, there was no programme in the campaign office. Everybody was at Afao, the hometown of Fayose because he was preparing to attend a meeting at Abuja called by the president. It was after he left that everybody went back to their various local governments.

Campaign office

The only people here were aides of the candidate and a staff of the office, they came to park three campaign vehicles in the campaign office. Suddenly, they saw the convoy of the governor coming from Ifaki and stopped in front of the campaign office.

When he stopped, some aides of the governor came down to have a brief discussion with the governor. After that, the governor moved but a bus carrying some APC supporters stopped and some persons alighted from the bus and started firing into the building. That was exactly what happened. Nobody threw any stone, there was no event here.

I was amazed and surprised when I read in the newspapers the following day that over a hundred people came out of the campaign office and threw stones at the governor’s convoy.

It was a fabrication. That is why I said APC is known for such lies and propaganda. They will cause trouble and will also be the one to accuse others of causing the trouble.

Face-off: APC is a party of peace—Daramola

Mr. Bimbo Daramola is the Director-General  of the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation. Daramola is also member of House of Representatives from Ekiti State. He counters the allegations levelled against Fayemi administration.

The Kayode Fayemi administration has been criticized for not allowing the PDP make use of the stadium for its flag-off rally. What do you have to say?

I will not speak for the government of Ekiti State, I may be associated by the fact that I am the Director-General of Governor Fayemi’s campaign Organisation.Did they (PDP) go to the stadium authorities with the application letter for the use of the stadium?

There would also be a formal reply by the management of the stadium. It appeals to sentiments that Fayemi’s administration denied the PDP the opportunity to use the stadium, everybody will want to latch on to that.

But the truth of the matter is that they have not also given the same quantum of attention to the response of the management of the stadium.

I need to find out whether there was a previous booking, whether there was a need for maintenance work or there is routine maintenance already scheduled. We paid for the usage even as a state government.

I don’t think people should politicise things that have processes and procedures. It is public utility and nobody will be stopped from using it and so, Kayode Fayemi could not have stopped anyone from using it.

But the PDP has threatened to use the high way for its flag-off campaign, should it be denied  usage of the stadium. How do you see it?

Why should anybody be prevented from using the stadium? How does it add strategic value to Fayemi or the APC?  There are different venues they can use and then, the recourse to federal roads is senseless.

I am not saying it with restraints. It is even irresponsible for anybody to say I will go and use a federal road, the federal road belongs to everybody anyway. Have they tried to use an alternative venue?

The APC accused the PDP of attacking its party secretariat where vehicles were vandalized but the PDP has its own version. 

We should check Fayose’s antecedents.  What was the input of the APC to the PDP primaries? Was it violence-free? It was not. Their secretariat has been there on Ajilosun road for God knows how long, no arsonist went there. All of a sudden, when Ayo Fayose became the candidate of the party, people went there.

The day he came into town, we had started our rally and so, we went to Ilemesho and Isan for our rally. All those who came with their cars decided to park their vehicles and went with the campaign buses.

On our way back, they had vandalized their vehicles. For the fact that we had policemen in front of the Kayode Fayemi campaign office, they most likely would have taken a shot at the facility.

Vandalized campaign vehicles

They removed all our banners and the ones they could not remove, they vandalized them. They vandalized campaign vehicles, the pictures are there to show.

Again, on our way back from a rally, right in front of the Fayose campaign office, they began to hurl stones and missiles at the convoy of the governor. They shot at a coaster bus and the splinter of the glass of the coaster bus entered the skin of one Babafemi Ologuntoye.

Was that why members of your party retaliated?

One of the things people should understand in life is that, when institutions begin to get wobbly and do not live up to their responsibilities,  people will likely resort to self help. And self defence is the first law of nature.

Upon the  first premeditated attack on the convoy of the governor, I had a press conference where I challenged the security operatives, what did they do? They did not do anything and nobody was arrested.