Former lawmaker representing Ekiti North Senatorial District, Senator Ayo Arise, has said his legal battle against the All Progressives Congress, APC, over the Ekiti North senatorial primary is not about personal ambition but about saving internal democracy.
Arise, who spoke in an interview on a national television monitored by our correspondent, said the exercise which declared incumbent Senator Cyril Fasuyi winner with 14,179 votes against his 4,868 votes was manipulated.
According to him, returning officials were improperly deployed, supporters who queued behind candidates were ignored, and ballot papers were taken away before figures were allegedly manufactured in favour of the incumbent. He said he approached the Federal High Court to avoid allowing the 14-day legal window to expire while waiting for party leadership.
Despite the dispute, Arise said he remains in the APC and supports President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election, a position he is now struggling to reconcile with his claim that the party subverted its own democratic process.
Excerpts of the interview:
Q: You took your own party to court over Ekiti North. What actually broke down?
Arise: “I suspected, I’ve been assured, that due process was not going to take place. I had discussions where I was urged to drop my ambition. And I said it was too late because I had gone back to the people. The kind of reception I was getting convinced me that these people really needed me to go back. I prepared, I had drones everywhere, cameras everywhere, in all the wards. True as suspected, these people just refused to count any votes and went back. Now they have results. I don’t know where the results came from because they didn’t even bring papers to the election place.”
Q: The APC declared 14,179 for Fasuyi and 4,868 for you. You claim you won 33 wards. What evidence do you have?
Arise: “We have videos of how people queued. It was not a secret ballot, it was open. People had to stay behind the banner of their candidate. It was very clear. In the places where we had elections, I had over 8,000 votes and Cyril had about 7,000 plus. That is what we presented to the court. What they wrote about 14,000 votes for the incumbent senator, it’s just a cooked up figure.”
Q: If the court upholds the APC result, will you accept it?
Arise: “The reason why I went to court is still basically that we need to correct our system. Whatever is wrong with it, we are responsible for the correction. It’s not about power, it’s not about being in the Senate. It’s about propriety. I’ve done far better in every way than when I was in the Senate. But I contributed my best to represent my people. I’m not in the court to say by force, by fire.”
Q: You say you are a loyal APC man and you support Tinubu, yet you say the party rigged you out. How do you reconcile that?
Arise:”Is President Tinubu responsible for what has happened in my senatorial district? The answer is no. The guidelines are there. Go and follow it. You either go by consensus or direct primaries. Consensus means everybody must agree. Where that does not take place, then you go for primaries. That was the original plan to edge me out, but we sorted it out on the field.”
Q: You said you were told the President asked you to step down?
Arise: “I made myself very clear when I was approached and they said President Tinubu said I should step down. I said if he said that, take me to the President and he tells me directly, that would be the end of it. That’s what I maintained because he’s the leader of the party. But he never did that. My going to court is an insurance.”
Q: You’ve warned about godfatherism and weak institutions. Has this experience changed your view of the APC?
Arise: “No, it has actually emboldened my resolve to ensure that things are done properly. To try and change the party from within. Oh yes, there are problems everywhere. In the primaries, there are problems in every party. Some people left the party because they were so disappointed and crushed by what they believed was a travesty of justice. I decided to stay.”
Q: If APC cannot guarantee credible primaries, why should Nigerians believe it can guarantee credible governance?
Arise:”Let’s look at it from this perspective. The fact that we’ve had other parties at the centre before, and opposition came and overwhelmed that party through the same process. Bear in mind, there is no single party in this country that can claim innocence when it comes to the electoral process.”
Q: You say Tinubu has fulfilled 95 per cent of his promises. How do you measure that?
Arise:”He promised economic turnaround for this country. He inherited a foreign reserve of about $3.something billion. Today, we’re at $55.25 billion. For the first time in 18 years, we’re able to have ability to pay for everything, machinery, equipment, goods and services. People can set up factories. The Bank of Industry has been doing very well.”
Q: But what impact has that made on ordinary Nigerians?
Arise:* “For me, it’s not that everything is 100 per cent perfect. But I still have trust and believe in the President and the things he has done for this country.”