Fayemi meets Buhari at presidential villa, denies vote buying

• Hints on probing Fayose
• Vendetta mission of governor-elect will consume him, Ekiti govt replies
• PDP contested against INEC, security agents, not APC, says Secondus

Ekiti State Governor-elect, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, yesterday held a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He dismissed trending reports of vote buying in the governorship election that produced him.

The governor-elect told State House Correspondents that he was not aware of any evidence of such substantial allegations of vote buying and intimidation.

He said: “I haven’t any substantive evidence of allegations of vote buying and intimidation. In the place where l voted, there was no vote buying anywhere.

“As far as our party is concerned, we did not engage in that, because it is not our style. We won the election fair and square and it was an election that we fought on issues and not on the basis of any vote buying.

He challenged whoever has any evidence of vote buying to present it to an independently verifiable audience.

He hinted that he might probe the administration of out-going Governor Ayodele Fayose, with regards to knowing how he spent allocations from the Federal Government, to ensure that Ekiti people are not cheated in the future.

Reacting, Ekiti State government challenged Fayemi to begin his probe now, instead of waiting till October 16 when he would be sworn in.

Fayose’s Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said this in his reaction to Fayemi’s threat.

He said: “Fayemi should stop living in the world where threat of probe scares people, because we in the government of Fayose are not afraid of victimisation and the vendetta that Fayemi is obviously coming with.

“It is obvious that he would be consumed in his vendetta mission and rather than grandstanding, Fayemi should first seek legitimacy for his stolen mandate.

“As for us, we have counted the cost for shenanigans of Fayemi and his Abuja impostors, and we are not afraid to confront them when the time comes,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, says his party did not contest with the All Progressives Congress (APC), but the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies.

Secondus said this yesterday when he received a delegation of Joint International Election Observation Mission at the PDP headquarters in Abuja.

President Emeritus, Fund for Peace United States, Dr. Pauline H. Bakaer, led the delegation of two main American international civil agencies, the National Democratic Institute, (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) to the state.

Secondus stressed that the party was consulting with its relevant organs to review the election, before taking its stand ahead of the 2019 general election.

The PDP chairman said what happened in Ekiti State was not just an electoral fraud, but robbery, in connivance with INEC and security agencies.