Oludamisi Ojo

A political pressure group, Ekiti K’oya Movement, has said that the use of electronic gadgets for the conduct of the June 18 governorship poll in Ekiti State would check alleged plans by the ruling All Progressives Congress to rig the election.

The group however appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission to use Ekiti not only for the implementation of the new Law assented to last week by President Muhammadu Buhari, but as a template for the conduct of the credible poll in the country.

Speaking with reporters in Ado Ekiti, on Sunday, the group’s spokesman, Mr. Jamiu Adeyanju, hailed President Buhari for signing the new Electoral Law.

According to him, the step would give Ekiti voters a respite and boost their expectations that the Social Democratic Party’s candidate, Engr Segun Oni, and the most popular candidate, would emerge victorious in the impending election.

Adeyanju said sanity would now return to the country’s electoral system with the granting of legal backing to the use of Smart Card Readers, electronic transmission of results, and total digitization of the electioneering process.

He said: “Consequently, ahead of the June 18, 2022 governorship election in our dear state, we urge INEC to efficiently deploy the application of the new provisions of the Electoral Act to ensure a free, fair, transparent, and peaceful election.

“We are aware of the grand plot by the ruling APC to rig the election because of the noticeable lapses in our electoral system. But with this ICT-inclined law, their sinister motives have been aborted and our people can now vote for their preferred candidate, Engr Segun Oni.

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“We are encouraged that the new legal framework for elections will help to loud the new sing-song in town among the populace that Ekiti Koya, O To Ge (Enough Is Enough, No More Enslavement) from APC and the People’s Democratic Party”.

Adeyanju said the people of Ekiti have pitched their tents with Oni of the SDP as the best and only credible alternative among the array of governorship candidates scrambling for the referred seat.

He noted that Oni’s solid and robust political and administrative antecedents and the inclusive government he operated during his first tenure between 2007-2010, had endeared him to the electorate, who are eagerly waiting to pay him back for his good deeds.