The situation in Ekiti state may have caused the Nigerian leadership an unexpected challenge of the avowed promise by Yar’Adua at his inauguration to ensure electoral reforms that would lead to credible results. Saharareporters has been informed that that Yar’Adua, caught between proclamations and reality, has summoned his beleaguered Electoral Commission boss, Maurice Iwu, Speaker Bankole and Senate President David Mark to an urgent meeting in Abuja tonight to discuss declaring PDP Segun Oni the winner of the re-run elections.
The meeting would also consider the scenario of imposing a state of emergency in Ekiti State for at least six months, thereby permitting Yar’adua the luxury of imposing an administrator on the state for the period.
Tonight's crisis meeting was occasioned by the refusal of people in Ekiti state to allow the Maurice Iwu led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare pre-fabricated electoral results that would have seen Segun Oni, the PDP candidate, winning the re-run by a margin of 10,000 votes.
The people of the state have continued their protests by setting street bonfires in the state capital and other major towns. In the past, INEC has dutifully returned candidates of the ruling party to the governorship position from which they were subdequently removed by court rulings. It is only in Ekiti State that the people have frustrated that match plan.
It would also be recalled that in Cross River, Sokoto, and Bayelsa states, the PDP candidates won election re-runs with little obstacle
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