As the Independent Electoral Commission finalizes plans to conduct a by election to fill the vacant seat in Osun West Senatorial District, the Osun state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party says it has credible information indicating that the All Progressive Congress is planning to compromise the integrity of the electoral process.
Chairman of the Party, Hon Soji Adagunodo stated this today while addressing a Press Conference at the PDP secretariat in Osogbo.
The chairman presented a list of 13 plans which the APC has as part of the plot to unduly and unlawfully influence the election scheduled to hold on the 8th of July.
Some of the plots as contained in the 5-page text read by Hon. Soji Adagunodo to scores of journalists at the Press conference include plans to “distort the allocation of ballot papers in such a manner that will ensure that those meant for specific local governments, wards and polling units are diverted to wrong locations in order to delay commencement of voting and also void the elections in such places”.
The PDP also said it has information that some of the ballot boxes meant for the Osun-West Senatorial by-election have been moved to the government house of a neighboring state with a view to stuffing them with ballot papers for onward delivery to some collation centers in the borders between Osun and Oyo States.
In addition, Hon Adagunodo said the PDP has it on “very good authority that the Osun state Government has procured the services of notorious thugs from within and outside the state to unleash violence in Ede North, Ede South, Egbedore, Irewole, and Ayedaade Local Governments on Election Day. The plan is to scare away voters and manipulate the electoral process where possible. This plan is being coordinated by a chieftain of the party who is also the Chairman of a Commission in the state government”.
“The same chieftain of the APC mentioned above is in charge of deleting names of eligible voters identified to be PDP members and supporters from INEC data base. This is being done state-wide and with the active collaboration of some officials of the electoral body”
Hon Adagunodo added that the APC election strategy committee is conniving with certain elements in the INEC to recruit OYES cadets and other party sympathisers as Presiding officers and Polling clerks. He added that part of the plan is to sew fake NYSC uniforms and distribute same to these elements in order to make them carry out these nefarious plans.
Other plans of the Aregbesola led APC government according to the PDP are allocation of nonfunctioning card readers to areas considered as strongholds of the PDP; kidnap and arrest of leaders of the PDP in certain local governments on the eve of the July 8th by-election sewing fake police/army uniforms for hired thugs in order to give them unfettered movement on Election Day as well as use them to disrupt voting in certain areas as well as use of party members as INEC election 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 Governorship election Anambra state”
The Osun PDP chairman also said the APC candidate in the Election, Senator Mudashir Hussein has concluded plans to transport thousands of non-residents fake voters from Abidjan, Cotonou, Togo and Ghana beginning from this week. The voters are to be located in Ejigbo, Iwo and parts of Egbedore Local Governments adding that a sum of 150 million Naira has been set apart for this purpose.
Adagunodo called on Security agencies and the leadership of the Electoral Commission to be on high alert ahead of the elections in order to avoid setting a bad precedence for future elections in the state.
The Osun PDP chairman admonished party members and supporters to be more vigilant as the election draws nearer, promising that the party has both the capacity and the will to combat all rigging plans of the APC and ensure that the will of the people prevail.
