chapter 12

The collation of the result of the 2009 Ekiti State Supplementary Governorship Election between the candidate of the People's Democratic Party PDP, incumbent Governor Segun Oni and the standard bearer of the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN, Dr Kayode Fayemi was my most tedious election coverage assignment. 

The background to this re-run gubernatorial poll is that, on 14 April 2007, the People's Democratic Party candidate, Engr Olusegun Adebayo Oni won the Governorship Election with 177,689 votes defeating, Dr John Kayode Fayemi of the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN who polled 108,305 votes as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC. Segun Oni was duly sworn in on 29 May, 2007 as the third elected Governor of Ekiti State.

But the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN and its candidate, Dr Fayemi had instituted a legal battle immediately after the declaration of Segun Oni as the winner of the April 14, 2007 Gubernatorial Election. The case which began at the Election Petition Tribunal in Ado Ekiti was ultimately decided by

the Appeal Court in Ilorin, Kwara State on 16 February, 2009. The judgement ordered  Governor, Segun Oni to immediately vacate his office and hand over to the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly.

The appellate court, Presided over by the President of the  Court of Appeal,  Justice Ayo Salami also ordered a re-run of the Governorship Election in 10 of the 16 Local Government Areas of the state within 90 days.

The collation of the result of the re-run election ordered by the Court of Appeal was held at Christ Girls' School, Ado Ekiti and the exercise was conducted twice in a space of 10 days on April 25 and May 5, 2009. That was the collation exercise that produced the battle cry "Shoot me" by an ACN chieftain, Bimbo Daramola. The name, Madam Ayoka also became popular albeit negatively during the collation exercise. She was the 74 year old Returning Officer who announced the result of the election vehemently disputed by some ACN chieftains and some activists present at the collation centre. They included, Femi Falana SAN, Dele Adesina SAN, Ex- Governor Niyi Adebayo and Mojeed Jamiu to mention a few of the gladiators of the day. On the PDP side were Senator Adefemi Kila and Pastor Kayode Babade who were equally as vociferous as their ACN counterparts defending the interest of their party too.

Under a cacophonous atmosphere on May 5, which was my birthday anniversary, the result of the re-run election was declared by Madam Ayoka Adebayo.You would think that on my birthday anniversary, I should be excused from duty, not in journalism, the rule is, " the show must go on".

The noise of the ACN supporters outside the hall, shouting RIG and ROAST and the chorus of "Ole, ole, ole, ole, Olèé, ole" by ACN chieftains as well as the shout of "Declare The Result" by the PDP faithful in the hall, drowned the feminine voice of the elderly woman announcing the result. However, from record we got the result as follows, PDP scored over 111,000 votes to beat AC  that garnered over 107,000 votes.

The light went out in the school hall as soon as Madam Ayoka dropped the microphone. 

My cameraman, Aruleba and I immediately rushed out and ran to where I parked my car and as I opened its door, some other  journalists rushed inside with us and we hurried out of the girls school. We soon discovered when we hit the road, that the immediate neighbourhood of Christ Girls' School, up to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital was a ghost town, totally deserted. Not until we got to Housing junction at Adebayo Area before we saw signs of life. There, we met some hoodlums on the road setting up a bonfire and they stopped us and peeped into the car. When they saw television cameras, they exclaimed, "Well done, na you people go announce yẹyẹ result". Before they could decide what to do to us, I drove through their barricade not minding my tyres but we did not move more than a few metres when we saw another bonfire ahead at the Nova junction. I instinctively branched off the road and parked in front of a popular Amala joint. 

My problem now was how to get the result of the election to the station for immediate broadcast and the time was approaching 9 in the night.  Fate soon smiled on us as a security vehicle appeared in the distance blaring a high pitch siren which forced the hoodlums at the Nova junction to take to their heels. When the security vehicle got to the bonfire, some of its occupants alighted, fired into the air and cleared the bonfire and they continued their journey towards Iworoko road. From the distance where we were observing happenings on the road, I jumped into my car and my colleagues rushed in too and we drove through the remnants of the bonfire before the hoodlums could regroup.

In less than 30 minutes of our arrival at the BSES, the result of the first Governorship Election in Ekiti State to go into a re-run was on air, simultaneously on the radio and television channels of the state owned broadcasting outfit.

Engr Segun Oni was re-sworn in on the 29th of May, 2009 to continue as Governor of the Fountain of Knowledge and Fayemi again challenged the result of the April 25, 2009 re-run election at the tribunal and lost but he headed for the Appeal Court again and won.

On October 15, 2010, the panel of five presided over by Justice Salami nullified election results in Ido Osi and Efon Local Government Areas of the state and consequently, Dr Fayemi polled 105,631 votes as against 95,176 votes for Governor Oni. The court ordered that ACN candidate be issued the Certificate of Return as the elected Governor while that of the incumbent Governor Oni was immediately withdrawn.

The court set aside the  earlier majority judgement of the trial Tribunal that  authenticated Segun Oni as been validly elected in the 2009 re-run and upheld  the minority judgement. It adopted the table of calculation computed by the minority decision of the tribunal on the lawful votes in the supplementary election and declared that by the combination of the lawful votes of 2007 and that of the 2009 supplementary election, Fayemi led Oni with 10, 555 votes.

The appellate court therefore declared Fayemi as the duly elected Governor of Ekiti State because he scored the highest number of votes and recorded 2/3 of the total votes in 1/3 of the Local Councils of the state to satisfy the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act.

Fayemi was sworn in at an elaborate ceremony on a clearing beside the NNPC mega filling station on Iworoko road in the state capital on October 16, 2010.