Former secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ekiti State
chapter, Dr Temitope Aluko, revealed at the weekend, in Abuja, how
former President Goodluck Jonathan assisted the governor of Ekiti State,
Mr Ayodele Fayose with $2 million to prosecute the primaries and $35
million for the June 21, 2015 election.
Aluko, who played a prominent role in the process, admitted that the
military equally assisted during the election and made victory possible,
adding that “we went into the election with 1,040 recognised soldiers
and another batch of 400 unrecognised ones brought in from Enugu.”
The embattled PDP secretary, who has now fallen out with Governor
Fayose, was the chairman of security and intelligence committee of the
Fayose Campaign Organisation.
Giving reasons he fell out with erstwhile compatriot, he insisted that
Fayose had derailed from the Ekiti Agenda which “we sat and put together
by himself, Fayose and Femi Bamisile.”
According to him, Bamisile and himself were the two people who persuaded
Fayose to come and contest the governorship seat, saying “as we
believed that he is the only one in view of the prevailing circumstances
then that can win the state for the party. We shared the governmental
positions among ourselves, thus: Fayose (governor), Bamisile (deputy
governor) and myself (Chief of Staff). Though he changed my own to
Secretary to the Government, but in spite of that, we continued the
struggle to rescue Ekiti from the government of Fayemi.”
Aluko, who spoke to newsmen in Abuja, at the weekend, was the Chief
Returning Officer for Fayose, who signed all the results sheets during
the last governorship election, admitted that he was fully involved in
the plot with Fayose from the very beginning.
Aluko, who now said he had been dumped by Fayose, insisted that he was
forced to divulge this information because Fayose betrayed him and
jettisioned “the original plan they had for the development of the state
after winning the election. Before the election, Fayose, Bamishile and I
jointly swore with the Holy Bible on a sharing formula after we must
have won the election.”
“But the moment he got into office, Fayose forgot completely the
agreement and dumped me. More worrisome is the fact that Fayose has
derailed from the original Ekiti project we envisaged. I apologise to
Ekiti people over my activities for bringing back Fayose.”
He disclosed that before the primaries, the former president gave his
team the sum of $2 million in March 2014 for the primaries and that the
cash was collected in Abuja and we later “took the money to Fayose’s
private house, located at Prince and Princess Estate, Abuja, from where
it was moved to Ekiti.
“Immediately after the primaries, we collected additional $35 million
from the president again. The money was brought to us by a former
minister and we all assembled at the front office of Spotless Hotel, Ado
Ekiti, owned by Fayose. Thereafter, the cash was taken to a Bureau De
Change in Onitsha, where it was converted to around N4.7 billion.”
He added that later, Fayose collected another N3 billion cash from one
politician from Ogun State, for the purpose of bringing back to life,
the almost dead PDP structure in Ekiti State.
On how the military and other security agencies assisted during the
election as it was then believed that the only way the PDP could win the
election was to use the military, he said: “We went into the election
with 1,040 recognised soldiers and another batch of 400 unrecognised
soldiers brought from Enugu, as the former president summoned a security
meeting at the Presidential Villa for the purpose of the election.
“At that meeting, the former president made it clear that Fayose would
stand for him (as Commander-In-Chief) in terms of providing security for
the election.”
Aluko informed that “44 special strike teams were brought from Abuja and
Onitsha. We made special stickers for the vehicles that conveyed
members of the strike team and black hand bands for each of them.
“Each strike team was made up of 10 members, headed by a soldier and
comprising soldiers, policemen, DSS operatives and Civil Defence corps
officers. They were detailed to attack and arrest prominent APC
chieftains in all the local governments.”
Detention camps were set up mostly in primary schools “where most of the
opposition chieftains were detained. Others were detained in police
stations, where the officers in charge were friendly with us. We let
them off after the election was over.
“We set up anchorage, mainly residential houses, in every local
government where the strike team members collected their welfare and
other allowances.
“To encourage the strike team members, we gave them orders to share
money and other valuables they could lay their hands on in the houses of
opposition chieftains they raided.
“A day to the election, we used the military to block all routes in the
local governments and prevented opposition movement and we ensured that
no opposition was in sight during election. We provided polling agents
for the opposition in most of the polling units so we had no problem
getting them to sign election results in the units.”
Aluko added that 64 party stalwarts were picked from each of the 16
council areas of the state, saying that these “64 party stalwarts were
carefully picked because they knew the terrain in their respective
council areas very well.
“They gave detailed information regarding names and locations of
opposition members in all the local governments, the various routes,
areas of strength and weaknesses of the PDP in the 16 local governments.
“Presently, he said that most of these 64 hatchet men are members of the
Senate, House of Representatives, state House of Assembly,
commissioners, local government chairmen, special advisers, among
others.”
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