By Gbenga Ariyibi

Ado Ekiti—Former governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi and a member of the House of Representatives, Bamidele Faparusi, have condemned the shift of the February general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, describing same as a coup against the electoral process in the country.

Fayemi

Fayemi, who blamed the Presidency and the military for the shift, said that INEC Chairman, Prof. Atahiru Jega, succumbed to pressure by the powers that be by postponing the elections.

Speaking in Isan Ekiti, his country home, yesterday, shortly after a church service to mark his 50th birthday at Saint Martins Catholic Church, Fayemi vowed that he, along with other pro-democracy activists and all lovers of democracy would resist attempts by those he branded as anti-democratic forces, to derail the country’s constitutional democracy.

Commenting on an alleged audio clip, where the state governor, Mr Ayo Fayose, had an alleged secret meeting with a group of people aimed at rigging the June 21 governorship election in his (Fayose) favour, Fayemi assured that more revelations would soon be released to complement the audio tape.

The former governor expressed shock that a sacred institution like the military, could have got enmeshed in acts that could subvert the democratic process, noting that such trend was dangerous to the survival of the democracy.

“It was apparent that the military and the Presidency boxed INEC to a tight corner to get the postponement to achieve their devilish motives. I believe that what we are expected to do as democrats must be those things that would strengthen democracy. For military to be saying that it would overcome insurgency, what it had failed to curtail in five years is standing logic on its head? You could see that Nigerians are very unhappy.”

Also speaking, a member of the House of Representatives, Faparusi, described the poll shift as “provocative, unjustifiable and suspicious,” adding that it would be difficult for the military to overcome the Boko Haram it had failed to exterminate in five years within six weeks, urging Nigerians to be vigilant about the new development.