NATIONAL Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on Thursday, said his party has allegedly uncovered the Peoples Democratic Party’s manual to rig Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State, contending that the opposition party was already in possession of projected fake results in all the 30 local government councils.
Addressing a press conference in Osogbo, on Thursday, he affirmed that the rigging plans were contained in two documents prepared by the PDP in Osun, are now in the possession of APC.
The first is a ‘secret’ document, which Odigie-Oyegun said was marked ‘’HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL,” containing a “meticulous outline of plans to rig the election, polling unit by polling unit, using pre-programmed ballot papers already designed and thumb-printed with vanishing ink in favour of the PDP.”
According to him, “the second document, entitled: “Task Force: Operation (PDP) takeover of Osun,” lists the actions to be taken at most of the 30 local government councils in the state, including thuggery, snatching of ballot boxes and instigation of violent clashes, the PDP members to coordinate the recommended actions and the APC members to be arrested to pave the way for such actions.”
The APC added that “the ‘secret’ documents further contain the plan to deploy specified numbers of impression ballot papers and vanishing ink in 1,195 polling units across 155 wards in all local government areas of Osun State, in addition to a plan to de-register 47,000 voters, whose Voters Identification Numbers have been illegally acquired so they won’t find their names on the voters register on election day.”
It said the documents also contained the number of pre-allotted votes for each local government to make up the number of 406,116, which the PDP had pre-allotted to itself, even before the commencement of voting.
APC gave the breakdown of the self-allotted figures, as contained in the document, as follows: Atakumosa East (10,000); Atakumosa West (10,000), Ayedaade (15,000), Ayedire (10,000), Boluwaduro (5,000); Boripe (10,000); Ede North (10,130); Ede South (10,000); Egbedore (10,000); Ejigbo (15,000); Ife Central (35,000); Ifedayo (7,000); Ife East (33,018); Ifelodun (15,000) and Ife North (20,000).
Others listed in the rigging document are: Ife South (20,000); Ila (10,000); Ilesa East (10,000); Ilesa West (10,340); Irepodun (10,007); Irewole (20,105); Isokan (10,000); Iwo (15,000); Obokun (10,203); Odo-Otin (10,107); Ola-Oluwa (5,070); Olorunda (15,000); Oriade (10,000); Orolu (7,936 and Osogbo (28,000).
But, the publicity secretary of the PDP in Osun, Bola Ajao, described the alleged rigging manual as a mere figment of the imagination of the APC leaders, saying that “they are now finding it extremely difficult to face the stark reality of their imminent and disgraceful exit from the seat of power.”
He stated, “the PDP in Osun is well and adequately prepared for victory on Saturday. We have what it takes to sweep the poll because the people are tired of this misrule and brutality of a government. It is clear that the defeat is staring them in the face.”
Continuing, Ajao asserted that “all they are now doing is a face saving mechanism. PDP would win fair and square. Osun people, in their hundreds of thousands, would troop out and vote for our party on Saturday. There is no such rigging mechanism. They are just afraid. They are feeling jittery and finding untenable excuses for their imminent and colossal failures in government.”
Describing the purported allocation of election figures and snatching of ballot boxes by the APC as laughable and display of sheer dearth of knowledge on the part of the ruling party, he emphasised that “there is no plan to perpetrate any manipulation,” stressing “how can we allocate figures to ourselves?
“Today, we were all at INEC office to witness the distribution of sensitive materials to all local governments. So where is their baseless information coming from. Not only that when Aregbesola was at the stakeholders’s meeting yesterday, where the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, attended, their so-called photochromic theory or allegation over the concluded Ekiti governorship election was described as non existent,” he submitted.
Continuing, the APC said an elaborate and audacious plan is to be carried out in connivance with key INEC officials from the national headquarters and those deployed from other states, with the staunch backing of all security agencies deployed for the election, with particularly-mobilised personnel, former militants and masked thugs impersonating security officials under a combined team code named ‘Election Task Force.”
It said the mandate of the task force included the intimidation, harassment and arrest of APC party chieftains, agents and sympathisers who are uncompromising or refuse their offer of filthy lucre.
Odigie-Oyegun, however, call on the new Inspector General of Police, Mr Sulaiman Abba and other security agents to show to Nigerians that they are truly professional men and women of honour, just as he appealed to all Nigerians and particularly the Osun electorate to be extra vigilant and ensure that their will is not subverted.
Also reacting, the PDP said the accusations were part of the APC’s “lying agenda.
“We have said it about a week ago that between then and Saturday, the APC is going to tell about 50 lies, because they already see defeat coming,” Diran Odeyemi, Mr. Omisore’s Director of Media and Publicity, said.
“How reasonable is it to allege that some ballot boxes were driven into PDP secretariat? If they were sure of this allegation, I expect them to direct their allegations to the SSS and the police, and not to the pages of newspapers,” Odeyemi added.
“Their propaganda has expiry date, and that’s August 9. We believe in credible election, one man one vote. And don’t forget that the APC has a system – accusing their opponent of what they want to do. And if they are planning it, I assure them they will be shocked at the security network,” Odeyemi noted.
Also, the national publicity secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Thursday, said the allegations were baseless and mere fabrications aimed at distracting PDP members and supporters and discouraging them from fully participating in the election.
It said the allegations was a ploy by the APC to make its members and supporters over-confident and divert attention from their sinister plan.
Stating that there would be no room for rigging, the PDP said “the process of accreditation, voting, counting of votes and declaration of results will be openly observed by the print, electronic and social media as well as local and international observers.”
The party reminded Nigerians of the fact that for the APC, elections are only free and fair when they win and rigged when they lose.
NLC warns against militarisation of election
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed its worries over the deployment of armed security men and women to Osun State, as part of preparations ahead the election scheduled for tomorrow.
The labour union, in a statement made available to the Nigerian Tribune and signed by Abdulwaheed Omar, its president, said “we believe this cannot be helpful to the growth of any democratic culture, as it portends an infringement on the rights of the electorate who may refuse to participate in the election, as a result of the intimidating presence of armed security agents.
“More worrisome is the reported shootings across the state capital by officers of the State Security Services (SSS), shortly after arriving the state for election-related duties. We wonder why the SSS had to waste bullets shooting sporadically to scare residents, who were not engaged in any form of violence at the time of the shootings.
“Inasmuch as elections are very important to any democracy, we caution that the state should not be turned into a war. We have had relatively credible elections in the past without a resort to over militarisation. Peaceful elections are possible in any part of the country without armed monitors if political actors are ready to play by the rules.
“While we do not discountenance the importance of security for peaceful and orderly elections, over-dramatisation of the use of force and arms defeats the very essence for which security is needed. We dare say this roadshow may be more useful in combat zones with insurgents or robbers, or even crude oil thieves.
“For the purpose of emphasis, there is little to gain from scaring away voters with gunshots. There is the need for Nigerian democracy to grow, but certainly not through the mindless and frivolous use of arms. Militarisation of elections is antithetical to democratic ethos and norms.
“Accordingly, we advise our military, DSS and the police high commands to ensure that their officers and men comply with all civilised norms guiding elections, instead of wasting precious and expensive ammo. They are bound by law to respect the rights of the electorate.
“We similarly advise the political actors, their supporters and the electorate to conduct themselves within the limits of the law.”
Council of Obas sues for peaceful poll
THE Osun state Council of Obas, on Thursday, charged all the governorship candidates in tomorrow’s election to embrace peace during and after the election.
All the monarchs in the state after a meeting at the palace of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade underscored the critical need for all the stakeholders and gladiators to shun any act, capable of causing chaos and crisis in the state.
In a release signed by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the traditional rulers also tasked the electorate to conduct themselves in a peaceful manner.
While admonishing the governorship candidates not to allow their personal interests override the corporate goals and peace of the state, the monarchs said everybody should contribute their quota to the overall success of the election exercise.
They implored the people to cooperate with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the law enforcement agents.
Today is public holiday in Osun
AHEAD of tomorrow’s governorship election, Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration has declared today (Friday) as public holiday to allow voters living within and outside the state capital opportunity of traveling to their various towns Saturday exercise.
The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Sunday Akere in a statement disclosed that the holiday was to enable residents and civil servants, who would be traveling to different parts of the state to perform their civic duties have enough time to travel without hitches.
Deployment of troops is okay —Osuntokun
A Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, national leader, Bashorun Akin Osuntokun, has argued that the deployment of security men to Osun State was with a view to ensuring that there is prevailing peace before, during and after tomorrow’s election.
“It is difficult to understand the logic of those who are making an issue of this fallacy (militarization). From the elementary logic of such clichés as ‘prevention is better than cure’ ‘hope for the best but prepare for the worst’ nobody can fault the anticipatory action of taking all security measures to address a potentially volatile situation-which is the case with all bitterly fought elections in Nigeria.
“In the case of Ekiti state, any fair minded and objective observer will report that the complementary role of the Military served to enable not disable the conduct of a free and fair election largely devoid of thuggery and violent eruptions. Anybody opposed to anticipatory maximum security of society and elections has an ulterior motive that cannot be in the best interest of the electorate.
“Many Nigerians have compared the present security situation to what obtained during the civil war or even worse. Other than formally declaring war what is presently going on in the hostilities between Nigeria and the Boko Haram insurgency is nothing short of civil war. If this is a fair appraisal can we then adduce bad motives to the Commander-in-chief for double-checking on security adequacy in any part of Nigeria?
“Since the APC and its accomplices persist in seeing ghosts where none exists, then maybe we should draw our own inference from the last two governorship elections in Ondo and Ekiti states-Why is it the case that APC and its legacy parties tend to perform poorly in universally attested credible election? Why does it thrive in malpractices-suffused elections and from there seek questionable intervention of the Judiciary?”
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