Rufai Oseni, an Arise TV presenter and public affairs analyst, has slammed former Ekiti state Governor Ayo Fayose for allegedly justifying malpractices in the recently concluded presidential election.
The outspoken journalist questioned the former Governor on whether his opinions were influenced by the fact that his preferred candidate and President-elect, Bola Tinubu, won the election.
Fayose stated that Tinubu had won the presidential election and that no one, including the courts, could change that.
Rufai accused Fayose, who was a guest on Arise TV’s Morning Show, of election rigging in his bid to become Ektiti state Governor in 2014.
Rufai said, “All you have said is a justification of continued illegality in our country. And, a lot of people are taken aback because you yourself have been secretly recorded by an army captain where you were dishing out election fraud plans in 2014. And we all remember that experience. Is it that we should continue in that now?”
According to Rufai, “If another person apart from Bola Ahmed Tinubu you supported has won this election, will you come on air and say all of these things that people should move on without justice?”
An apparently angered Fayose responded by saying he never ordered anyone to rig elections in 2014. He said “Nobody can say to you that I said they should go and rig an election.”
Fayose accused Rufai of breaking the law in reference to his traffic violations in 2022.
The former Governor said “That shows that you as a journalist, a public analyst, somebody who is supposed to live above board is not equally living above board. He that must come to equity, must have clean hands.”
Fayose admitted during the programme that the conduct of the 2023 presidential election which Tinubu emerged “may not be the best”.
He attributed the APC’s victory to the G-5’s withdrawal from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the presidential election.