HE All Progressives Congress (APC) at the weekend alleged that an official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is colluding with chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig next weekend governorship election in Osun State.
The party said it was alerting Nigerians to the alleged plan, primed to disenfranchise eligible voters in the August 9th gubernatorial election.
In a statement issued in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said under the plan, some INEC IT staff had allegedly handed over the entire electoral register for the state to a Special Assistant to a top PDP national official, with a view to allegedly manipulating it to disenfranchise many voters.
APC said the plan to tamper with the electoral register for Osun, coupled with INEC’s delay in issuing permanent voters register to registered voters, especially those who are APC members in the state, highlighted the alleged desperation of the PDP to win the forthcoming governorship election at all costs.
“The truth is that the PDP knows it cannot win a free and fair election in Osun State. Everything so far points to the fact that our party will win by a landslide if the election is free, fair, credible and transparent. In fact, a highly-credible opinion poll carried out by the globally-recognised TNS-RMS shows that the APC leads among voters in the state by 73%, compared to a paltry 19% for the PDP.
“Apparently stunned by the reality on the ground, as against the propaganda by the PDP, the party’s candidate, Iyiola Omisore, quickly conjured his own opinion poll, purportedly carried out by USAID, showing that he is leading the APC candidate and incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
“Fortunately, USAID has denied carrying out any opinion poll in Osun State, thus putting a lie to the PDP’s claim. There is no better indication of desperation than this,’’ the party said.
It called on all the people of Osun State and APC members and supporters, in particular, to be very vigilant in order to thwart the evil machinations of those who were allegedly averse to credible and violence-free elections.
Reacting to the allegation that the PDP had allegedly colluded with the Independent National Electoral Commission to alter the voters’ register in Osun, a stalwart of the party in the state, Chief Ade Fadahunsi, described such allegation as the figment of the APC’s imagination, contending that “the leaders of the party, who are already smelling the bitter fragrance of electoral loss on August 9 are comedians”.
He stated, “these people would just sit down somewhere, licking their wounds and concoct lies and barefaced propaganda to create false impression to the public, who are no longer hoodwinked by their gross deceit.”
“With the level of electoral reforms, sophistication and commitment of the INEC headed by Professor Attahiru Jega to improve on its performance everyday, do you think that kind of ignoble thing is possible? Maybe the APC are working on that theory and we should ask them to think twice before the wrath of the law catches up with them”, Fadahunsi asserted.
Responding to the development, the newly deployed Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of INEC in Osun, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, said “I am not aware of that because as far as we are concerned, such thing does not exist. They should come up with concrete evidence and be specific”.
While assuring that the umpire was absolutely ready to conduct free and credible poll on August 9, Agbaje advised politicians to desist from making baseless and misleading accusations, capable of jeorpardising the conduct of peaceful election.
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