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Leaked Ekiti Rigging Recording: Falana Dares Obanikoro To Go To Court

February 11, 2015

The senior lawyer, who spoke at the Black History Month and Dr. Beko Ransom Kuti Memorial Program in Lagos on Wednesday, attributed the shift in the dates of the general elections to the leaked audiotape, which revealed how some top members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) connived with security agencies to manipulate the election.

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Human rights lawyer Femi Falana has dared Nigerians implicated in the rigging of the Ekiti State gubernatorial contest of last year to go to court.  

The senior lawyer, who spoke at the Black History Month and Dr. Beko Ransom Kuti Memorial Program in Lagos on Wednesday, attributed the shift in the dates of the general elections to the leaked audiotape, which revealed how some top members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) connived with security agencies to manipulate the election.

The audio recording was made by an embarrassed army captain who was at the meeting in an Akure hotel where the plans in were extensively discussed.   The PDP candidate, Ayo Fayose, who played a prominent part in the meeting, won the contest handily.

Fayose and Musiliu Obanikoro, a former junior Defence Minister, have however denied that there was such a plot, and questioned the authenticity of the recording.

"I understand that Mr. Obanikoro says he will go to court,” Falana said, and dared the former Lagos State PDP gubernatorial aspirant to go to court, but stressing that Obanikoro would not attempt it.   

In spite of their denials, however, Jelili Adesiyan, the Minister of Police Affairs who also attended the meeting, on Sunday confirmed the authenticity of the recording, but argued that the meeting had not been about rigging the election.  

Falana disagreed.  "One of the reasons they postponed the election last week is that disturbing revelation by that Captain,” he said.  

“That is what they wanted to do for the entire country. That revelation has sent them back to the drawing table. They now have to restrategize."

He noted that none of those identified as having participated in the meeting had successfully challenged the army officer's detailed account of the incident, which is backed by an affidavit, as well as an extensive appearance on SaharaTV last Saturday where he provided even more devastating details.

Falana also criticized President Goodluck Jonathan for "embarrassing" the country with his repeated trips to the Holy Land, saying he could have channeled those funds into creating jobs.

"I was reading the papers yesterday, the president said in violation of the peace accord, that governors in the north have not been sending Christians to Jerusalem. In other words, they have been sponsoring Muslims to Mecca," said Mr. Falana.

"Please tell the president that there is no provision in our law for sponsoring anybody to Jerusalem or Mecca.

"Section 10 of the Constitution provides that the Nigerian State shall not proclaim any religion as an official religion. Therefore, appropriating billions of Naira every year, wasting money to send people to send people to Jerusalem or Mecca is illegal.

"If you must know, less than seven percent of Israelis are Christians, so they make jest of us. When you descend on them, that you are there to worship Jesus Christ, they'll be like 'are these people Ok?'"

Mr. Falana stressed that the general election must hold and that whoever emerges winner should be allowed to govern the country, regardless of such people as Edwin Clark and Femi Okurounmu, whom he described as “old men with expired ideas.”

"We never saw them when we went to the streets of Lagos and Abuja to proclaim Goodluck as acting President. You were in the streets of Lagos, where were these characters? They were nowhere to be found.