The Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to probe the alleged involvement of the military in the ballot snatching and violence that rendered Bayelsa State governorship election inconclusive.
The PDP stated such probe was necessary if the military panel set up on Ekiti and Osun state elections should not be taken as mere witch-hunt.
The party's Publicity Secretary in Ekiti, Mr. Jackson Adebayo, in a statement in Ado Ekiti yesterday, wondered why the military men during the Bayelsa election allegedly aided the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig election in the Southern Ijaw Council area of the state after the military panel on Ekiti and Osun elections was put up to probe the activities of soldiers in election matters.
Consequently, the party challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to prove to Nigerians his sincerity on free and fair elections by querying military on its alleged role in the electoral fraud in the Bayelsa State governorship poll.
Adebayo stated that if the military could probe the Ekiti and Osun elections where there was no record of killing, ballot snatching or mass thumb printing of ballot papers, “then that of Bayelsa State should be handled by a military tribunal to probe the wanton destruction of lives allegedly by soldiers just to rig for APC.
“The President cannot stand aloof when the military under his administration has decided to join hands with his party to be rigging elections as witnessed during the inconclusive Bayelsa election while at the same time, the Nigeria Army is probing its men that provided security that prevented rigging during the 2014 Ekiti State Governorship election.”
The PDP spokesman reminded the President that Ekiti election was adjudged to be free and fair by both local and international observers, adding that the silence of the President “would be seen as giving nod to the impunity of the military in Bayelsa election.
“The essence of the military probing the Ekiti and Osun elections will become an exercise in futility and kangaroo arrangement if the President behaves as if what happened in Bayelsa is normal.”