Why the election was not free, fair — APC

The APC at the end of the first meeting of its National Working Committee, NWC declared the just-concluded election as neither free nor fair as it claimed that the process that led to it was skewed to favour PDP. The party said it had as such directed its members and officials who were arrested or limited in the days leading to the election to seek legal redress. A communiqué of the meeting issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated thus: ”In order to prevent a recurrence of what happened in Ekiti, especially the militarisation of the process, the harassment and intimidation of citizens, especially those in opposition, my party has decided to challenge in court some of these constitutional breaches and will also encourage our leaders and supporters, who were arrested, harassed and intimidated to seek the enforcement of their fundamental rights that were recklessly abridged by the security agencies.” He further stated that: “We believe that the events leading to the D-Day in Ekiti negate the principles of a free, fair and credible election. From the militarisation of the election to the police attack on our supporters, arrest and detention of our leaders across the state and the use of huge funds to induce voters, the federal authorities skewed everything in favour of the PDP.” According to him: “With thousands of armed troops, police, state security and civil defence personnel deployed to Ekiti, the state was simply under a total lockdown.