INEC must probe Ekiti ‘rigging’ tape – Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka,
says the audio file which
purportedly captured some
Peoples Democratic Party leaders
giving orders to a general to rig the
June 21, 2014 governorship
elections in Ekiti State must be
investigated by the Independent
National Electoral Commission and
the Independent Corrupt Practices
and Other Related Offences
Commission.
Soyinka said this in a statement
while reacting to a front page
advert in the PUNCH sponsored by
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele
Fayose, in which the governor
discredited the authenticity of the
tape based on a report by the US
that the Ekiti governorship poll was
transparent.
The playwright said the issue was
too weighty to be dismissed
without being investigated.
He said since Fayose had
referenced the US report, the
Federal Government could also call
on the US to assist in investigating
the tape.
Soyinka said no one would lose
anything by investigating the tape
since it was the job of law
enforcement agencies to
investigate matters of state.
He said, “For those who have
nothing to hide, disrobing lies and
forgeries and reinforcing truth is
regarded as part and parcel of the
obligations we owe democracy.
The audio could well be one of such
forgeries. We are daily inundated
with allegations, evasions,
distortions, image plundering and
image laundering, all under the
permissive canopy of electoral
proceeding.
“Once in a while, however, we
encounter exposure of an
exceptional dimension that
appears to strike at the very root of
democracy, questions the validity
of an entire electoral system and
even erodes confidence in the
integrity of the state. Such an event
need not be regarded as a
repudiation of the formal
mechanics put in place by an
electioneering agency such as INEC,
but nonetheless extends the scope
of its responsibilities, including its
projection of looming hazards of
future electoral exercises.
“This is why, in the absence of a
Constitutional Court or its
equivalent, one is left with no
other course than to call on INEC to
also take formal charge of the
recorded incident of this alleged
conspiracy to pervert the course of
democracy. For those ‘who have
nothing to hide,’ it is a call that
deserves unstinting support. They
should not hesitate to assist in
calling on the same US expertise to
assist us in exposing a forgery.
“We are speaking here of a
development that implicates not
only products, beneficiaries or
would-be constitutional guardians
of the electoral process – that is, an
elected governor, a governorship
aspirant, but also state agencies –
the military, two serving ministers
– that is, members of the Executive
arm of government, one of them in
charge of the nation’s defence
portfolio – and others.
“In addition to the logical role of
the police, the nation’s electoral
commission should undertake an
independent investigation and
make its findings known to the
nation. Is this perhaps something
INEC can undertake while the
nation waits out its suspended
electoral sentence? It only requires
repudiation – or validation – of the
findings of an already advanced
forensic enquiry.”

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