 SDP rejects APC's win in Ekiti and we take a closer look at how NSER's protest will shape the 2023 elections. This is PlusPolitics. I am Mary-Anna Cohn. Chagorni, the Ekiti state governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP and his Action Democratic Party counterpart, Mrs. Kemi-Elebuté Halli, has rejected the results of the Saturday election saying that the outcome of the elections will be challenged at the tribunal. The SDP candidate said that the results as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission did not reflect the true decision of the people, lamenting that the process was allegedly marred by financial inducement. Joining us to discuss this is Moses Jolayemihi, the chairman, media and advisory council of the Chagorni campaign. Thank you so much, Mr. Jolayemihi, for joining us. Thank you very much. Let's start by backpedaling a bit. Last week, just before the elections, I spoke with somebody from your campaign who had spoken about the fact that Mr. O'Neill was being targeted. He kept saying that every time you visited different places in his words, you were being targeted by the opposition. And here we are today, a few days after the elections. The SDP is saying that the results have to be contested because of certain irregularities. Paint a picture to us as to why you have rejected the results of the Saturday elections. Thank you very much. I think you started by saying that Chagorni was being targeted and all that. Yeah, it wasn't only Chagorni. The entire media, I mean, sorry, the entire campaign of the opposition was being targeted, you know. And the fact is that APC had always seen the SDP as their major problem, their major headache. So we've been doing everything possible to suppress the SDP. It was not possible. Now, going into the election, they decided to ensure that the wishes of the people, they have made attempt to trot the wishes of the people in the sham that they called election. It was a cash and carry thing. They have reduced the state to a marketplace where votes can be sold and bought. So what we saw was vote buying across the entire 16 local governments of the state and it was also mad by Thugry, Ballonbox snatching, Ballonbox stuffing, and all monies of the intimidation. And the entire process is flawed. And that's why the SDP is rejecting this election. It's a departure from the reality on ground. The wishes of people, this is not the reflection of their wishes. I'm sure you must have seen pictures and videos of those who were buying votes who, I mean, the SDP caught some people. They busted into some houses and where money was kept and so on. So a lot of things happened that made this election a mockery. And I think the APC also did a good job of capitalizing on the poverty situation of the Kiti people, which in any case the cost in the first place. They deliberately decided to coverage the place, I mean the people, so that they would be there for their youth every four years. And that's what we missed. So this was not an election. I'm curious to ask, as much as you've said that there was a lot of vote buying, they bought the people and of course that's how they arrived at the votes that they have. But let me start by asking. If you are alleging that there was vote buying, but then people did at least cast their votes, should INEC be the ones that we should be speaking to or should it be the people? Because again, people can be induced, but they can decide, like you said, there is poverty in the Kiti state. If it's anything to go by, should the people not be in a better position to make the choice of voting for good governance as opposed to monetary inducements? I know it's easier said than done, but is it not the people who chose to vote for those people who gave them money? Should INEC be taking responsibility for what happened on Saturday? Yeah, the truth of the matter is you have struck it, you struck the nail on the head somehow by saying that, I mean, it's very, very difficult for somebody who is extremely hungry to be able to ignore money. Don't forget that workers in the state have not been paid for several months. So the propensity for survivor, it's there. Everybody, every human, every living thing wants to survive. Even a plant wants to go towards the direction of light, sunlight to manufacture its food. So what do you say of human beings? There's always that tendency for people to want to survive any way, anyhow. So that's about that. INEC is comparable because it deliberately decided to ignore its own electoral rules and laws. It looked the other way. So to that extent, I think they are comparable. Just as the security agencies are true. I was going to ask, as much as INEC is a regulatory body, INEC is there to conduct, make sure that we have free for incredible elections, but they cannot also be playing the role of the enforcement, which is the police, which is security services. INEC cannot leave their job of trying to make sure that people vote to deal with the issue of vote-buying. I'm sure that this conversation has been had on several forums where we talk about whose job it is to deal with vote-buying. But then I want to put a direct question to the Shegorni campaign. If you have been campaigning, I'm wondering what have you been saying to Akiti people if the large majority, going by what you've said, have been induced by the so-called opposition to get their votes? Does it mean that your voter education or your campaign fell on deaf ears? To be honest with you, it's a very, very hard not to crack when you appeal or you preach or you campaign to a very, very hungry person, not to take money. I think it's very difficult. It's very difficult. We did our best to tell the people to ignore that something called the Boko Sebe in Akiti State, which is take money, I mean vote for us, take money, and then you can cook a pot of soup. And we've been trying to tell them that a pot of soup that will not last you more than two days should not be used to mortgage your future and the future of your children. I mean, another suffering of four years, in case not taking eight years, that people should ignore that. But unfortunately, like I said, survival is the first rule for every human. So you'll be able to convince them to actually ignore that very, very tempting 10,000, 7,000. It's somehow. And you see why we feel that INEC is generally culpable here is that during the campaign and in our meetings with different stakeholders, observers, international community and all that, what we were telling them was that, look, to effectively control and discourage vote by, then INEC has a duty to ensure that the positioning of the ballot boxes and the ballot booths were such that people would not be able to display their ballot papers to the agent who were, in any case, on hand to see that, okay, look, I have done my bit, I have voted for you. And then the next thing is that the other person, the agent would not give a nod to another person standing strategically somewhere. And that person will nod to the other person who will now, it will nod to another person where the money was. So the person goes in to collect the money. I saw that in my polling unit, for example, and I complained. I asked the security agents, what are you doing? Can you see what's going on here? But they just looked at me and the guys, they just walked away. To them, what's this guy talking about? Because all of them have been taken care of, presumably anyway, because I don't have complete evidence for that. But I didn't see when they were being given money. But you see the fact is that when things like that happen, you know that, you know, something must have gone on under the table. So the security agents nuked their way. INEG also helped in ensuring that the vote-bind paid was effectively carried out. While we were busy campaigning, you know, going to every nook and corner of making the state, all the rallies, all different local governments, you know, in my word, for example, with my place in Okimeti, meetings were being held, rallies, everything. We were campaigning, house to house, everything. Everything was just looking at us. I'm sure they would be laughing at us and just cheering at us that at the end of the day, I mean, they knew what they were going to do. And they had a plan made and they carried it out to the letter. On the day of the election, they simply rolled out multiples of millions. Every polling unit, for example, in the state, some got up to four million. You know, in my hometown, for example, small polling units like this, you had million, a billion-dollar waiting. I mean, for extremely poor people, that was irresistible. So, now, this election, you can say safely that INEG, law enforcement agencies, and APC, they did a good job of ensuring that this election was not an election. This is no democracy. And that is the reason we are rejected, the outcome. This is not the outcome that reflects the wishes of the people. It's a complete departure. I don't want to argue with you, but let me put it side by side. So, in one breath, you're telling me that the people in Akiti State, in your opinion, have been impoverished deliberately by the government for such a time as this. And so, that's why they're inducements. And, of course, they cannot say no to those inducements. But then you're also saying in another breath that this is not necessarily an election that reflects the wish of the people. Where does wish come in here when I have already been paid off to vote for a certain person? I mean, I'm trying to understand how will the wish of the people come to bear if those same people were eager and happy to take inducements, in your words, from so-called opposition. Isn't this the wish of the people already? How do we, how do we even juxtapose that? Okay, okay. Let me just add this. Maybe I should have done that before. Those who were, there was another set of people, the civil servants for instance, they formed 40 percent of the entire population of the state. Those ones were mussels. They were kind of compelled to do the bidding of the ruling party. Okay? This year by three also played out there. Even if they are not taking money, you must show that you have voted for APC. Okay? Otherwise, your job is on the line. Civil servants, because there's nobody that can, it's difficult to comprehend that those who have been vote salaries for months, you know, those whose parents or uncles or aunties or whatever have not been paid their areas of gratuities and pension, will then willingly go and vote for a party that approves them, that will go and vote for a party that has continuously keep them in perpetual financial and social bondage. It's not possible. What is the, what is the scorecard of APC in the state? Tell me, what is the scorecard? What can they claim to that they have done successfully in the state for which anybody would want to vote them in? So people's hands were tied, you know, at their backs. They had no choice. So it's not like this is what they would ordinarily have done. And that tells you why that speaks to the fact that as we speak now, no jubilation in anywhere in the state. Don't forget that excitement, happiness, jubilation is spontaneous. It's not something you plan for. You don't have to set committee for you to tell people to be happy. The election result was announced. You would have expected the entire, you know, all the streets in the state would erupt in jubilation. But what you are seeing now is everywhere is calm. There is sadness on the faces of the people that what is this, what is happening to us. There is no celebration. And APC that we know, if anything, if they achieved anything, we'll be the next one minute, the entire streets are full. Everywhere is full with jubilation. But what do we have now? They are probably setting up committees, asking people to come from different local government, you know, they will pay for their transportation, to come to a break, to come and jubilate. You don't plan for jubilation. You don't plan for excitement. You don't plan for happiness. It shows and it's spontaneous. You exclude it. It comes out natural. But what do you see in the state now? There is no jubilation everywhere. I mean, anywhere. That tells you that what has happened to them, you can say there is peace now. But I liken that to peace of the graveyard. Nobody is happy about itself. So it's not a reflection of their wishes at all. I just want to push you further. I mean, this we can use it as a litmus test. We were going to obviously use equity state elections as and also state elections as a litmus test for what we should expect in 2023. And so let me ask this question. Judging from what we've seen, because of course we had seen a lot of young people, many Nigerians tripping out to INEC to get their PVCs because they're very eager to vote for good governance. But from what you have painted, the picture that you've painted, I'm sure that when we have the ABC campaign committee here, they would tell us something different. But from what you have said to us, what does 2023 hold for Nigerians? What's the guarantee that people will vote right? I mean, because this is just the state elections. And according to you, there have been inducements. There's been electoral violence. In fact, somebody said that she could have ordinarily accepted, you know, the win of Governor, Mr. Biodonye Banji. But she said, in spite of the various programs and media publicity against vote buying, she said the APC, the PDP and your party, the SDP, promoted and encouraged corruption both at the grassroots and the state levels. Now, this is also indexing you. So I'm asking a general question here. If this is what's happening in just a state election, what should we be looking forward to in the general elections come next year? I sincerely hope Nigerians would think better. I sincerely hope they will not fall for this tokenism, this 5,000, 3,000 Naira, because the presidential candidate of the APC reportedly came to a state and kind of officially endorsed the vote buying thing. He told them in Yoruba that, you know, if you don't turn print, you don't put your finger on the ballot. You cannot put your finger on the money, you know, which is a direct allusion to vote buying, okay? So that's what it came to do. I'm sure I have a feeling that that, in a way, energized the APC fellows here who felt that, okay, I mean, this is now official. So I'm going to pound with that. So I sincerely hope Nigerians will think better and look beyond this ephemeral imprint of whatever 5,000, 10,000. I don't know how much they're going to roll out in 2023. But there is a lot of danger in voting for money, because it's like you are voting to sentence yourself to another four years or whatever years of slavery. So my advice to Nigerians is that they should look well, and like the same legos, shine your eyes and ensure that, you know, you vote your conscience, vote your mind, vote the right person that you know can turn around the fortunes of Nigeria. What we're experiencing now is not something that anybody will wish for this country. The country is a, this is not what we thought. I mean, we never envisaged, we never dreamt Nigeria could be what it is now. That's why we stayed here believing that it will get better. Unfortunately, it's getting worse by the day. Alright, quickly before I let you go, I told you that the ADP candidates actually accused your party, the PDP and the APC, of vote buying My party is SDP from PDP. No, no, she, she, she indicted your party, the APC and the PDP. So all three parties, she's saying she saw a level of inducement and vote buying. I'd like to quote her directly. She said, in spite of the various sensitization programs and media publicity against vote buying, the APC, the PDP and the SDP actually, in her words, promoted, encouraged corruption both at the grassroots and the state levels. I'd like to get your response to that. And finally, what is the end game, the SDP saying they want to go to court? What do you hope to get at the end of the day? What we hope to get at the end of the day is outright cancellation of this shaft. Then on the issue of SDP joining in the corruption and inducement, I beg to disagree with the report of a bad person because we didn't have provision for that. We're not sharing money. And all along, I think APC itself used mock us and jail at us that, oh, don't mind them. The reason they are campaigning against vote buying is because they don't have money. They say she doesn't have money and all that, and all that. Yes, she has not stolen money. She has not amassed wealth, like all the other guys that have passed through here. So I think it's the only former governor who doesn't have his account with millions and he doesn't have properties thrown all over the country and other parts of the world. That's fine. But he has integrity, he has name, he has track record, and that is what ignited the interest of the people. You need to see the crowd that was following us everywhere we went, not induced, not bought. They really, really wanted a change. They wanted a reprieve. They wanted a fresh breath of life, which APC is attempting to take off them. But we are going to challenge this charm. So you're saying, just for the record, that the ADP candidate, the lady in question is lying, because I'm guessing that somebody of that caliber would not be putting out such information if she does not have evidence of vote buying. I'm just saying, are you saying outrightly here on national television that the ADP governorship candidate told a lie about the SDP, the APC, and the PDP vote buying both at state and local government levels? Well, I am not a mini-potent that couldn't have been everywhere. I voted in my hometown of Kimetsuikiti and I can tell you for free that we were not sharing monami party tickets. So you agree that there could have been a possibility that some SDP party members were inducing people at certain polling units since you were not at the other polling units? What I'm saying is based on your insistence and the fact that somebody of the persons caliber, blah, blah, blah, and I'm saying to you, because what I know is what I'm going to say to you, apart from being a politician and a journalist, and then when in doubt, you find out, you cannot find out you live out. So I'm not ready to be here on national television, feed the people who vote. What I have seen in Okimetsuikiti, the microcosm of the rest of the state, is that we did not share money. If there was money to share, I should know about it. Well, I want to say thank you. Moses Jalehemi is the chairman, media advisory council, Shagwani campaign organization. Thank you so much for speaking with us. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you for staying with us. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we will discuss how the NSAS protest might shape the 2023 general election. Stay with us.