governorship election was rigged, has been released online.
The recording, which was onSahara Reporters, purportedly captured the
voices of the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, a military general
who was in charge of the election, Senator Iyiola Omisore and former
Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, in a meeting where
they allegedly gave directives to the military to favour the Peoples
Democratic Party.
But in a swift reaction to the development, Fayose said he never held
any meeting with anyone to rig election. In a statement by his Chief
Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, on Friday, the governor described the
audio clip as a new calculated attempt by the All Progressives
Congress to discredit the election results.
Reports said the audio recording was made by one Captain Sagir Koli of
the 32nd Artillery Brigade in Ekiti State, who was allegedly present
during the meeting.
A voice alleged to be that of Fayose in the audio recording complained
that the military had arrested some of his supporters with arms and
had failed to release them.
Another part of the recording also referred to some stickers which
served as forms of identification through which the military was
supposed to identify foot soldiers of the PDP that should not be
detained during the election.
A voice directed the military officer to arrest the Director-General
of the Kayode Fayemi campaign organisation, Mr. Bimbo Daramola.
It was claimed that Brig.-Gen. Aliyu Momoh and the Minister of Police
Affairs, Caleb Olubolade, were also present at the meeting.
The following quotes are taken from the transcription of the audio
recording with the names of those who allegedly made the comments:
Fayose:This brigadier general, I was governor of this state 12 years
ago, you would probably be a captain or a major, but we give God all
the glory. When you talk to this man he would argue from morning to
night. What we want to eat does not allow us to know our right.
"Number two, my younger brother retired in the army as
brigadier-general, when you explain to this man, its argument,
argument, argument. Today, we met and agreed on how to work, myself,
Omisore and all the heads. We agreed on a strategy to use, and the
nine that would join us and all you expect me to do, I have done.
Obanikoro:We have a challenge on our hands, how do we resolve this
challenge? I am here, the governor is here, when we call you, we want
action, it should not take two hours to get action, the governor said
he called you, somebody was detained for over two hours, I want to
know who was asked to be disarming those people.
Caleb Olubolade:Another thing, General relax, sit down. You are a
soldier man, you are working for us. You have more shock absorber than
we bloody civilians. Forget about that there are some things that are
not clear to us. One - that your boys are disarming even the police.
(General "are the police for us? Yes now! Yes now!")
However, Fayose had described the audio clip as fake.
He said his voice and those of others in the clip could have been
faked using technology like Natural Voices.
He said, "Nigerians should be reminded of how the APC people lied in
2007 that they recorded how the governorship election was rigged even
in the palace of the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adejugbe, but the
party could not produce a single photo evidence at the tribunal
because their plan to do what is known as Morphing and Synizesis was
exposed.
"Nigerians should also be reminded of the existence of a technology
called speech software, which is good at reproducing the sounds,
inflections and intonations of a human voice.
"The APC that we all know is a party of crooks, who are capable of
doing anything, no matter how criminal to achieve its aim."
Also, Obanikoro denied reports that his voice was one of those on the
audio recording.
Obanikoro said in a statement released by his Special Adviser on Media
and Strategy, Ohimai Amaize, that "you will never find him anywhere
in the world talking about rigging an election in favour of anyone.
"Senator Obanikoro is initiating a legal action againstSahara
Reportersin New York and Nigeria for defamation of character," the
statement said.
--PUNCH
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