The Senate President and National Leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Bukola Saraki has described Saturday’s bye-election into Ekiti/Isin/Oke-Ero and Irepodun federal constituency as a contest that was simply between PDP and security agents plus the All Progressives Congress (APC) “due to the heavy deployment of police, soldiers and other security agents who gathered to support APC and harass PDP leaders and supoorters.”

Saraki who disclosed this late Saturday, in a series of tweets using his official Twitter handle said the poll was the first time that elections in Kwara will be held under such charged, tensed and militarised conditions, noting that INEC officials even complained about their own safety and PDP supporters were brazenly intimidated, which resulted in low turn out of voters.

“It is important to reiterate that ahead of the 2019 elections, such open displays of intimidation are sending wrong signals. Our democracy is being undermined with this misuse of our nation’s security apparatus,” the former Kwara Governor added.

He however thanked the people of the constituency who came out to vote, defying what he described as heavy intimidation and siege laid by the security agents and thugs invited into the 4 LGAs by the APC.

In a related development, winner of the election as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Raheem Tunji Olawuyi has said that his victory at Saturday’s poll is a victory for the people of the state, adding that the success was a sign of more victories to come for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 general elections in Kwara.

Olawuyi who made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday at Omu-Aran, Kwara, in reaction to the outcome of the poll, said the statement by the state government that the election was between the PDP and the security agencies was laughable because it was what they were used to, while praising his party (the APC) as the best in Africa.

“This is a happy moment for me because we have been doing this for a long time. When your time has come, no one can stop you but at the same time, I give glory to God, because it is the best time Allah has created for me.

My party believed in me to put me forward for the assignment and I thank God I have delivered,” he said.

According to the results announced by INEC late Saturday, Olawuyi polled 21,236 to emerge winner, while his closest rival, Saheed Alatise of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), scored 18,095 in the bye-election conducted to fill the vacant seat of Funke Adedoyin, the lawmaker representing the constituency at the House of Representatives, who died on Friday, September 28, 2018.