Ekiti turns to police state ahead of election

Simon Ateba/Ado-Ekiti

Ado-Ekiti, the capital of Nigeria’s southwestern state of Ekiti, was turne‎d into a police state on Friday, 24 hours to the governorship election on Saturday.

‎With close to 40, 000 security operatives, holding AK-47 rifles, displaying anti-bomb detector equipment and driving at full speed with their weapons pointed at passersby, it looked as though a major military operation was underway.

‎Some residents compared the show of force to a major military operation to free the Chibok girls who have not been rescued by the Nigerian soldiers more than two months after their abduction by the Boko Haram insurgents.

Apart from Ado, there were military checkpoints virtually everywhere in the state of 2.4 million people. Policemen and soldiers stopped and frisked passersby. They punished those who refused to comply or were slow to heed their orders.

Right at the entrance of Ekiti from Osun, a female soldier administered corporal punishment to a boy she said was found in possession of a military outfit. Another man was hit for parking at the wrong place. And the driver of the vehicle conveying our correspondents to Ekiti was threatened by a soldier for ‘s‎peeding’.‎ It was also learnt that the soldiers destroyed many phones on Thursday because the owners received calls in their presence.

Ikechukwu Aduba, the Commissioner of police in charge of the Ekiti election, said in an interview on Friday that rumour about alleged plans by the police to help rig Saturday’s elections should be discarded. He said a level playing ground will be provided. He called on Nigerians to have trust in the police. Aduba disclosed that two persons have been detained after they were caught with guns.

Despite his assurances, Governor Kayode Fayemi, who is seeking re-election tomorrow, called on Ekiti people to come out and vote and warned that any attempt to rig the elections will not stand.

He said similar attempts in the past failed. He urged Ekiti voters to be law-abiding‎ and vote based on his strong achievements and records.

The governor wondered why security operatives prevented two governors from visiting Ekiti on Thursday, and added he hoped it was not a signal that democracy was on the brink of being subverted in Ekiti.

In Ado-Ekiti and throughout the state, streets were empty, shops were closed and banks shut their doors at noon. Many businesses did not even open. ‎As night fell, the capital was silent, intimidated by many guns in town.

A simple decision-making process to elect a governor seems to have turned Ekiti into a state of war.