The opposition party says the denial disrupted its plans for a grand finale rally ahead of the governorship election.
The opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) has alleged that the Ekiti State Government recently blocked it from using the Ekiti State Pavilion for its campaign grand finale.
ADC South-west Zonal Chair Akinbowale Omole alleged a blockade of the party’s final rally scheduled for the Pacilion. It was later held at its campaign office in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on Thursday.
Mr Omole said that the party had applied to use the government facility, which it described as the state’s equivalent of Abuja’s Eagle Square, for the campaign grand finale. Still, he was denied despite the venue being empty.
The ADC said it approached other private property owners for facilities but faced threats.
“For today’s rally, we applied to use a place that can be compared with Eagle Square in Abuja, which is where all political parties normally have their rallies. APC had theirs there two days ago,” Mr Omole said.
“The place is empty as we speak, but they refused to allow us to use the place. Even when we approached private property owners for their facilities, they went there to threaten the owners.”
Mr Omole did not specify the response received on the initial campaign space the party had applied to use or the threats faced when it approached other facility owners.
The zonal chair said that in the last eight months, the political environment had been hostile to the opposition.
He said the crowd present at the rally did not represent all their supporters.
“The crowd here is just a representative,” he said.
Mr Omole noted that, due to the development, the party had informed its supporters across the state to send only representatives to the rally.
The state government has, however, denied the allegations.
In a telephone conversation with PREMIUM TIMES, the state’s commissioner for Information, Culture and Values Orientation, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said the accusation was an “excuse for failure.”
“Nobody has blocked anybody from using any public facilities,” Mr Olatunbosun said. “They are just looking for excuses. They are accepting defeat even before the election.”
He noted that the opposition party’s campaign did not draw a crowd and that the venue would require at least 30,000 supporters.
“They don’t have people on the ground. So a pavilion would take nothing less than 30,000 or 40,000 people,” he said.
“Where they have their rallies today, they are not up to 1,000. So what are we talking about? So it is not true. They are just being mischievous.”
Pressed on why ADC’s application to use the venue was denied, he said, the application does not guarantee access.
“Let me say this without being modest and without prejudice to their right to use any public utility,” Mr Olatunbosun said. “If they write, if you want to apply for my house or a hotel, it could have been booked. Not to even talk of public utility.”
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