As voters in Ekiti go to vote in today’s election that is predicted to be epic, aside other factors and sentiments like candidates’ antecedence, monetary inducements will essentially shape the outcomes of the election, COMPLETE NEWS has gathered.
Our correspondent gathered yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital that the two leading political parties in the race, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC had already started reaching out to voters with financial inducements.
In last minutes consolidation, party stalwarts returned to their respective towns , villages and hamlets to secure votes in their domains from being poached by a rival political party.
Meanwhile, the state capital and the second largest town in Ekiti, Ikerre were peaceful as residents stockpile food stuff ahead of the election. Gas stations and banks in the towns closed early yesterday perhaps because of the charged atmosphere.
In the build up to the election, stomach infrastructure was the main highlight of the campaign. The Stomach Infrastructure, a term introduced into the nation’s political lexicon by the incumbent governor of Ekiti, Ayodele Fayose has come to stay.
Sunday Anifowoshe, Special Adviser on Stomach Infrastructure to the Ekiti State Governor supervised the distribution of free petrol to motorcyclists popularly called Okada riders in Ado Ekiti, the state capital.
Anifowoshe while speaking with journalists said the governor’s stomach infrastructure was not limited to rice and chicken only but also included free fuel stressing the gesture was a tradition and not an emergency kindness to secure votes.
In the same vein, the APC was also said to have played the same politics of free petrol for Okada riders when public transporters shunned work to join Fayose at the Government House to campaign for the Peoples Democratic Candidate, Professor Olusola Eleka.
Political observers and the international community are keenly interested in the outcomes of the Ekiti Election. This was acerbated by the claims of Governor Fayose that policemen acting on orders from Abuja slapped, kicked and teargased him.
The governor attracted public sympathy when he appeared in a neck braced and a broken arm. The United State Ambassador to Nigeria visited the governor in Government House on Friday. The diplomat is expected to monitor the election including British High Commissioner to Nigeria.
