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In the build up to
the 2003 elections, there was a consensus in civil society that we were
wrong to have taken the decision not to participate in partisan
politics in the 1998-1999 transition. The interminable transitions
without end orchestrated by the Babangida and Abacha administrations
between 1986 and 1997 had pushed us into the conclusion that we must
defeat the military before we can talk about democratic transition.
Then Abdulsalam Abubakar came into power and the transition did occur,
but without us.

In our subsequent
analysis, we felt that the very low quality of both executive and
legislative branches was partly due to the absence of those who had
fought so hard for democracy. We prepared the grounds for the
transition to democracy through our combative struggle against military
rule and for human rights and when the transition moment arrived we sat
on the sidelines while “professional” politicians, most of who did not
fight for democracy took over power In the run up to the 2003
elections, there were extensive discussions within civil society that
as many as are willing should join political parties and compete for
power. Over twenty major civil society activists sought nomination from
different political parties. Some went to the big parties and never got
nominations which were sold to the richest aspirants. Others joined
progressive small parties such as the Gani Fawenhinmi’s NCP and the PRP
and were rigged out in the elections.

Four of our
colleagues however made it to the National Assembly. Dr Usman Bugaje of
the Network for Justice and Abdul Oroh of the Civil Liberties
Organisation became PDP members of the House of Representatives while
Dr. Haruna Yerima and Uche Anyeaghacha also joined the House on the
platform of the ANPP and APGA respectively. They fought Obasanjo’s
“Third Term” agenda and succeeded in stopping him from ruling us
forever. Obasanjo for his own part took revenge and succeeded in
stopping them from returning to power.

In November 2005,
Kayode Fayemi came to meet me to discuss his intention to join the
political fray by seeking the gubernatorial contest in Ekiti State. I
drew his attention to the risks as Obasanjo was unlikely to tolerate
his progressive views in the PDP and the other parties might be rigged
out. His response was that if we do not engage in the battle to regain
the franchise, our struggle for democracy would remain superficial. I
agreed and wished him well in the struggle. In response, he requested
that I resign from Global Rights where I was country director and take
up the leadership of the Centre for Democracy and Development where he
then was. I accepted and took up the challenge of keeping up the task
of deepening democracy on the civil society front.

Today, Centre for
Democracy and Development applauds the unanimous judgment by the Court
of Appeal that our founding director, Dr Kayode Fayemi, indeed scored
105,631 votes as against Segun Oni’s 95,176 in the April 2007
governorship election and won that election three and half years ago.
The Court of Appeal also ruled that he was the winner of the April 2009
supplementary election involving some wards in the state.

The judges have
become heroes in Nigeria’s democracy building marathon by finally
allowing the truth and the mandate of the people of Ekiti State to
triumph. The judges have also made it clear that certain officials of
the Independent National Electoral Commission of that time were the
perpetrators of the electoral crimes that kept Fayemi away from his
mandate for three and half years.

We recall that
after the April 2009 re-run elections, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo, the then
Ekiti Resident Electoral Commissioner had initially rejected that fake
results Ido-Osi stating that her conscience as a Christian would not
allow her falsify the truth. She was immediately declared a wanted
person by the Inspector General of Police, dragged out and marched to
the office of the then Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Maurice
Iwu. Thereafter, she recanted and announced the false results knowing
full well that she was depriving the people of Ekiti the governor they
had elected twice.

Now that INEC has a
new credible leadership, we call on their Chairman, Professor Attahiru
Jega to immediately set in process the prosecution of Ayoka Adebayo,
Maurice Iwu, former imposter Governor Segun Oni and the then Inspector
General of Police for the electoral offenses they committed. As long as
there are no sanctions for electoral crimes, people will continue to
commit them.

We congratulate our
founding Director, Kayode Fayemi for his dogged determination over the
past 42 months to recover the stolen mandate of the people through the
judicial process and wish him the best in implementing his 8-Point
Agenda aimed at deepening democracy and promoting people-centered
development in Ekiti State.