Uche Cecil Izuora
The June 20 Gubernatorial election reflected the true democratic expression of the people of Ekiti State, the Nigerian Human Rights Community, NHRC said on Wednesday.
The coalition of some human rights groups who monitored the gubernatorial election said the outcome of the election was credible, free and fair being the aggregate outcome of the democratic aspirations of the people.
Addressing the media in Lagos, the leaders of the group led by Martins Adeleke, Fred Ojinika and Akinwale Kasali praised the people of the state for a peaceful and orderly turnout free of violence, ballot snatching and brigandage that had characterized the usually controversial past elections in the state. The coalition had deployed 200 monitors across the state.
The rights group said ‘INEC ensured real time transmission making the voting process transparent, truthful and accountable. Compared with global standards, the election meets international expectations. This is attributable to the improvements recorded by INEC over the years, the progressive, accountable background of the Resident INEC State Commissioner, the credibility and transparency of the Resident INEC Commissioner Dr Bunmi Omoseyindemi and his team and the fairness and professionalism of INEC Staff.’
The coalition said INEC deployment of BVAs, brought as a result of innovations to improve the the Nigerian electoral system over the years eliminated ballot snatching, manipulation of the the voters’ list, fake voter’s register thereby making political thuggery linked to vote stuffing unattractive.
The coalition said a total of thirteen political parties contested for the Governorship election in Ekiti State on June 20, 2026. There were 1,059, 360 voters out of which 1,028,929 collected the PVC.
The rights group said INEC provided voting materials covering the polling units and the 177 wards spread across 16 Local Government Councils and 19 Local Government Development Areas, (LCDA).
‘INEC officials deployed officials were effective and professional in the handling of voting materials. The distribution of ballot papers, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Machines and Voters’ registers were effectively deployed in real time. The election in most places began as scheduled. The voting was generally peaceful,orderly and violence free. It remains one of the most violent-free in the history of elections in Nigeria and particularly in Ekiti State. The passion of voters also indicted overwhelming preference for democracy as the best alternative to any other non-representative government,’ the coalition said.
The NHRC said in the Wards and polling units visited, opposition parties had their party agents fully represented casting away any doubt of manipulation of the voting scores while the results were counted in the presence of all party agents. In almost all the polling units, the All Progressives Congress, (APC) recorded overwhelming performance in terms of turn out and voter’s enthusiasm to cast their votes.
‘The political space is dominated by the APC before, during and after the election. At the end of voting on Saturday June 20, the incumbent Governor Biodun Oyebanji scored 319,224 votes while his closest rivals, Dr Wole Oluyede scored 40,5533 votes while Amb. Dare Bejide scored 12,872 votes. In the poling unit of the candidate of ADC, Amb Dare Bejide for instance, APC scored 140 votes while ADC scored 37 votes, PDP had 2 votes.’
The coalition observed that at the polling Unit of the leading opposition figure, Dr Wole Oluyede, he scored a mere 113 votes while the APC scored 84 votes. In many units located in Ikere where Oluyede comes from, APC won. It said ‘the result reflects the true aspirations of the people of Ekiti State and shows clearly the strength of the ruling party in the State. The mass celebration of voters after the results were announced on Sunday was a confirmation of the overwhelming support the Governor of Ekiti State continues to enjoy in the State.