Gubernatorial Elections and Security Challenges in Ekiti - State, Nigeria

Since the return of this present democratic government in 29th May, 1999, Ekiti State has witnessed five different gubernatorial elections; the first in 1998, the second in 2003, the third in 2007, the fourth in 2014 and the fifth in 2018. These elections have been characterised by peace and violence. The first election held in 1998 was peaceful basically because it was conducted by the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) and supervised by the then outgoing military Head-of-State Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar (Rtd). However, subsequent gubernatorial elections conducted by democratically elected government have been marred by series of electoral violence and security challenges ranging from ballot boxes snatching, stuffing, intimidation of opposition candidates, killings, votes buying to votes rigging. It is not an understatement to say that gubernatorial elections conducted by elected government are far from reflecting the people’s mandate. Security challenges during gubernatorial elections in the state has given rise to voters apathy and this came to a climax in year 2010 when the Court of Appeal in Ilorin had to decide the authentic winner of the gubernatorial election held in 2007 because of widespread violence and manipulation during the election. This paper interrogates security challenges in Ekiti state during gubernatorial elections. Data for this paper was obtained from secondary sources from records and reports of the past gubernatorial elections in the state. Keywords: Gubernatorial, Elections, Violence, Voters, Manipulation, Ekiti state. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/9-6-02 Publication date:March 31st 201