Fayose: I Spoke in Ekiti Rigging Audio Tape

Ayodele Fayose

• Says I was only complaining from the beginning to the end
•  Insists Buhari wasn’t in London
• Anti-Buhari’s  adverts: APC accuses governor of  profligacy

Chuks Okocha in Abuja  and Olakiitan Victor in Ado Ekiti


For the very first time on Monday, the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, owned up that it was his voice that was aired in the controversial audio tape on the state governorship  election, but stated that he was complaining against the inadequacies in the electoral procedures during the governorship election in the state.

Fayose, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, also disputed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), was not in London on a working visit, but on a sick bed.

According to the governor, “The voices in the tape are mine, but as you can see, I was the one complaining from the beginning to the end.”

The state governor, who challenged those feeling aggrieved on his role in the state controversial tape to go to court, saying that is the only credible way the matter would be resolved.

Speaking on the APC presidential candidate, who is on a working visit in the United Kingdom,  Fayose said, “I am telling all my supporters all over the world, the APC presidential candidate isn’t having any meeting in London.
“He is on a sick bed in Cavendish Street, in London. They should come out and confess to Nigerians that this isn’t a response to my declaration that Buhari is ill.”

When reminded that Buhari spoke to THISDAY directly from London on Saturday, Fayose said: “I am not disputing you but it is all about my words against yours. I have my facts that Buhari is not in London on a working visit but in a hospital bed.”

He cautioned that his position on Buhari should not be construed as against the North.

According to Fayose, “So, this isn’t personal. I am not against the North, I am not against the South, I am saying Nigerians must be given opportunity to elect a president that will endure, a healthy person that will rule this country.”

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has said Governor Ayodele Fayose needs psychiatry test with the way he has been spending millions on adverts to run down its presidential candidate, Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
The party accused Fayose of engaging in diversionary tactics to cover up his alleged involvement in the fraudulent  practices during the
June 21 poll as contained in the Capt Sagir Koli’s secretly recorded audio tape .

The APC declared that the revelations in the tape would not be eclipsed by his anti-Buhari campaign antics, stressing that the money the governor is spending in his hate campaign could have been channelled towards productive activities for the benefit of the Ekiti people.

The state Publicity Secretary of the party, Taiwo Olatubosun, said:

“He knows with General Muhammadu Buhari as the president, that will be the end of impunity and fraud through which he was declared the governor. “He knows he can’t survive the revelations contained in the tape when Buhari becomes the President. That is why he wants General Buharidead,” Olatubosun explained.

He added further that: “We know Fayose very well. He will go to any length in his hate campaign wishing Buhari dead. But he will not succeed. The spirits of Nigerians that desire change in their lives are stronger than Fayose’s selfish spirit whose only wish among millions of Ekiti is to build an empire around himself with stupendous wealth while Ekiti people beg him for crumbs from his table.”

The party warned the governor against wasting Ekiti money on anti-Buhari campaign, including hiring agents trailing Buhari around the world, saying that it was criminal to be spending the state resources in furtherance of personal ambition and safety.

The APC spokesman explained that the governor’s desperation to get at Buhari had led him into the hands of fraudsters in London who deceived him with the photographs of the retired Army General taken at a private home that has nothing to do with a hospital. He said with the way the governor was behaving, “he needs psychiatric test.”

The party said it was quite unfathomable that a governor that complained that Ekiti has poor financial status could engage in frivolities, stressing that for the past four months, he had busied himself with debts profile of the state, while not forthcoming on the balances and refunds made to the state by the federal government.