INEC must investigate 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.
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"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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