Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has condemned today’s verdict by an electoral tribunal invalidating the election of Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State. Mr. Fayose declared that the tribunal’s judgment was a ridiculous and political exercise that would never stand before God and people of good conscience.
According to Governor Fayose, the judgment removing Mr. Ishaku, the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), demonstrated the existence of a conspiracy between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and a section of the judiciary against the PDP. He urged Nigeria’s Supreme Court to intervene in order to save Nigeria from impending anarchy. A statement released by Lere Olayinka, Mr. Fayose’s special assistant on public communications and new media, questioned the propriety of a tribunal making a central issue out of the conduct of the PDP primary that took place in Abuja to produce Governor Ishaku, pointing out that the tribunal sat in Abuja.
“How does the emergence of [a] party candidate, which is the clear internal business of the party and a pre-election matter, concern the APC and the election tribunal?” Mr. Olayinka asked in the statement issued on behalf of the governor.
The statement added: "Isn't it funny that it is no longer about election rigging, but technicality of how PDP candidates emerged even when no one in the PDP went to court to challenge how Governor Ishaku emerged as the PDP governorship candidate? "If insecurity could make Taraba State Tribunal sit in Abuja and not in Jalingo, how then can it be justified that the same tribunal that sat in Abuja nullified the governor's election because the primary election that produced him too was held in Abuja? "Is it not being manifested in this President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government that what is good for some people may not be good for others even though we operate the same constitution? "To me and the teeming supporters of the PDP, this judgment is one that must not be allowed to stand.
It is a clear miscarriage of justice and we will seek redress from the court of men and the court of God." Governor Fayose stated that, even if “everybody is persecuted and intimidated to submission, I will remain resolute in my resolve to always say the truth before men and God.”