Former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has commended President Bola Tinubu for what he described as his magnanimity during the August 15 governorship election in Osun State, saying the President could have influenced the outcome if he had wanted to.
Fayose, however, alleged that the Federal Government used its influence against him during the 2018 Ekiti governorship election, claiming that security personnel were deployed to restrict his movement and weaken his campaign shortly before the poll.
The former governor made the remarks during an interview with TVC News, while reacting to comments by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, that he could have helped the All Progressives Congress (APC) win the Osun election if President Tinubu had wanted victory at all costs.
The Osun election was won by the incumbent governor and Accord candidate, Ademola Adeleke, who polled 511,067 votes to defeat the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who scored 444,815 votes.
African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate Najeem Salaam came third with 17,180 votes.
Adeleke won in 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas, while Oyebamiji won 11.
Fayose said the closeness of the contest showed that the election could have gone either way. He congratulated Adeleke and urged him to be magnanimous in victory.
He added that the outcome demonstrated that the Federal Government had not deployed the kind of influence he alleged was used against him during the 2018 Ekiti election.
“The only thing I heard towards the election was the Federal Government will take it by force. The Federal Government has come to do this. I want to say to you, if the Federal Government wants to take an election, they will take it. If the Federal Government, the ones I know of the past, if they want to take an election, there’s nothing you can do,” Fayose said.
Comparing the Osun election with the 2018 Ekiti poll, Fayose alleged that the circumstances were completely different.
“Let me give you an instance. Ekiti was taken from me in 2018. By all means possible. Those features did not play out in Ede,” he said.
According to Fayose, the Government House in Ado Ekiti was surrounded by security personnel three days before the election, while his security details were withdrawn.
“Three days before my election, the Government House was jammed. It was jammed. You can’t talk to anyone on the phone. All my security details from whatever name you call it, I was left with an order.
“All of them were taken to police headquarters in Ado Ekiti and I was left on the field for three days. That is when you are talking of federal might,” he alleged.
Fayose further alleged that he was prevented from leaving the Government House to participate in a campaign march and was assaulted when he resisted the restriction.
“Beyond that, three days to the election, I wanted to do a march with over 60,000 followers. I was stopped. I was stopped by the security personnel. And I told them I am the governor of this state. An inspector told me, ‘Governor my foot.’ And they prevented me from coming out of the Government House.
“And I said I was going to come out at all costs. And to that day, they hit me with the butt of the gun and I went down. My deputy at the time had the same experience,” he alleged.
Fayose said the incident left him injured and required medical treatment.
“That was why I had the collar on my neck at the time. I wish I had that image for Nigerians to see. I had four surgeries, four procedures because of that incident alone,” he said.
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