Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has described the victory of Governor Seriake Dickson in the Bayelsa State gubernatorial elections as a victory for the people of the state who resisted the imposition of a governor on them.
The final result as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) saw the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Dickson defeat his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart Chief Timipre Sylva by a margin of 48,148 votes, in an election which was marred by violence.
However, Fayose, in a statement through his spokesman, Lere Olayinka on Sunday described Dickson’s victory as “sweet”.
He said: “I congratulate Governor Dickson for this sweet victory. I salute Bayelsa people for standing firm against terror. I sympathise with families of those that were murdered and I urge Nigerians to take note of the systematic destruction of democracy by the APC government in Abuja.”
In a jibe directed at INEC and its leadership, Fayose noted: “If the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could not conduct a free and fair election in just eight Local Governments in one month, one wonders how long it will take INEC to conduct the president election that will be held in 774 Local Governments in 2019.”
The governor, who is known critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, said the legacy of democratic elections bequeathed to the country by immediate-past President Goodluck Jonathan was already being eroded by the desperation of the APC to take over all the states in the country through crooked means.
