Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has
alleged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) plans to rig the July 8, 2017
senatorial by-election.
The by-election will fill the vacuum created by the death of
Senator Isiaka Adeleke, who died on April 23, 2017.
PDP Chairman in thte state, Soji Adagunodo, who raised the
alarm in Osogbo, the state capital, yesterday, told newsmen that some APC
chieftains in the state have started conniving with electoral officers to
scuttle the process of free, fair and credible poll.
He alleged that the plan is to delete names of supporters in
PDP strongholds.
Adagunodo, who alleged that APC is desperate to rig the
election in favour of its candidate, Senator Hussein Mudasiru, further
alleged that the party has concluded plans to distort allocation of ballot
papers in such a manner that those meant for specific local governments,
wards and polling units are diverted to wrong locations to delay the commencement
of voting and disenfranchise voters.
He also alleged that the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), in the last one week, had been under pressure by the APC
leadership to postpone the election by two to three weeks.
Adagunodo also alleged that the state government has allegedly
procured the services of notorious thugs from within and outside the state to
unleash violence in Ede North, Ede South, Egbedore, Irewole, Iwo
and Ayedaade local government areas on the election day to scare
away voters and manipulate electoral process.
He added that the APC election strategy committee was also
allegedly conniving with certain elements in INEC to recruit O’YES cadets and
other party sympathisers as presiding officers and polling clerks.
“Part of the plans is to provide fake National Youth
Service Corps (NYSC) uniforms and distribute same to these elements to make
them carry out the plan.
“As we speak, certain chieftains of APC have compiled names
of their party members and sympathisers to be accredited by INEC as election
observers and monitors.
“You will recall that 181 of these same elements from Osun
State were arrested somewhere in Imo State in 2013, while travelling as fake
observers for the Anambra governorship election,” Adagunodo said.
Adagunodo also accused the APC candidate in the
election, Hussein, of clandestine plans to bring in thousands of
non-residents from Abidjan, Cotonou, Togo and Ghana as voters.
Adagunodo, however, called on INEC to call its officers to
order, and not compromise its integrity.
“We will test the integrity of INEC in this election,” he
declared.
Reacting to Adagunodo’s allegations, APC called on the PDP
leadership to prove its allegations with available technical, electronic and
forensic evidences.
APC spoke through its Director of Publicity, Research and
Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, who also urged security agents to invite PDP leaders
to prove the allegations, otherwise, “they should be prosecuted.
“We challenge the PDP to go further and authenticate the so-called
allegations and identify the so-called leaders of the APC with all the
technical, electronic and forensic evidences necessary to prove the
allegations.
“The APC believes that these allegations of rigging arethe
product of the sick mentality of Osun PDP and its supporters who are
psychologically tormented by the obsession to win Osun West senatorial seat, by
any concoctive and demonic means.
“We declare that the APC can never descend to the
criminality of accessing electoral materials, not to talk of planning to rig
the forthcoming election.
“We are, therefore, alerting Osun people to discountenance
the stupid allegations by PDP that could not do anything to the consistent
defeats they have suffered in the hands of APC since 2011,” Oyatomi said.
By Clement Adeyi
