The Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party,( PDP) has berated the last Saturday Local Government election in the state where the ruling All Progressive Congress ,(APC) won all the chairmanship and councillorship positions in the sixteen local government council as well as in 19 newly created local Council Development Area (LCDA)
The main opposition party had boycotted the election ,claiming that the APC is incapable of organizing any free and fair election , devoid of violence.
Other six political parties however participated in the election. The parties include; Action Alliance (AA), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), All Progressives Congress(APC), National Rescue Movement(NRM), and Young Progressives Party (YPP).
The Ekiti State Publicity Secretary, of the PDP , Raphael Adeyanju in a press statement made available to Newsmen, in Ado Ekiti claimed that the results of the election and the obvious low turn out of voters have confirmed the opposition’s fear that the result had been predetermined by the APC ruling party.
” The reality in Nigeria today is that the APC cannot win any free and fair election in any state of Nigeria .
That none of the six other political parties that took part in the council election was able to win a single councillorship position shows the desperation of the ruling party.
” Those parties were only used to give credibility to the local government election . We knew this, and that was why we kept away from the charade. Ekiti electorates have also understood the antics of the ruling party and refuse to be used , No wonder, the election recorded the lowest turn out of electorates in the history of Ekiti State. Events from across the state on Saturday clearly showed that the people of Ekiti has rejected the APC and its government.”
The PDP spokesman also described the conduct of election in the newly created LCDAs as unconstitutional , claiming that since the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recognizes only the existing sixteen local government areas in Ekiti State ,election in the 19 LCDAs is an aberration and a waste of resources.
Adeyanju said : “The creation of mushroom LCDAs is an act of political gerrymandering , which is a fraudulent creation of constituencies to favour the ruling party. It is an act that was carried out without proper consultation with all relevant stakeholders,especially the opposition parties.”
The PDP also alleged that Governor Kayode Fayemi has a penchant for creating LCDAs when his party is about to lose gubernatorial election.
“The APC government has as usual created the LCDAs to become a burden for the in-coming PDP administration in Ekiti State . We can see how the sixteen existing local government areas have been under-developed by the APC government .They are all in a sorry state and have been left at the mercy of the predatory state government.”