Ahead of tomorrow's governorship election in Osun State, the two major contestant parties are now trading words on alleged plan to rig the poll in their own favour.
Particularly, All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders rolled out on Thursday what they described as the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) manual to rig Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State.
There are, among others, projected fake results in all the 30 local government areas and a massive plan to arrest APC members.
At a press conference in Osogbo, the state capital, APC Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun said the rigging plans were contained in two documents prepared by the PDP in Osun, and which are now in the possession of the APC.
The first is a “secret” document marked ‘’HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL’’ that contains 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 PDP.
The second document, entitled ‘’Task Force: Operation (PDP) takeover of Osun’’, lists the actions to be taken at most of the 30 local government areas, 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 party said the ‘secret’ document contains 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, 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 register on election day.
It said the document also contains the number of pre-allotted votes for each local government to make up the number of 406,116, which the PDP has pre-allotted to itself even before the commencement of voting.
The 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 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).
According to the APC, the plan is to be carried out in connivance with key Independent National Electoral Commission (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”, directly under the instructions of Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro (Minister of State for Defence) and Jelili Adesiyan (Minister of Police Affairs), Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode and Mr. Chris Uba.
It said the mandate of the task force includes the intimidation, harassment and arrest of APC party chieftains, agents and sympathizers who are uncompromising or “refuse their offer of filthy lucre”.
The APC said the second document, a part of which was written in longhand, contained even more damning evidence that the PDP has decided to employ rigging, thuggery and other acts of violence to “win”.
For example, the party said, the document lists members of the ‘Omisore Youth Forum’ who must be supported with the deployment of a “Strike Force” as Adedotun Adebowale (alias Marcel), Kingsley Awosiyan, Muyiwa Odikunrin, Wale Ojo, Kola Oladipupo and Kako Banji.
Other are Halif A. Adeniran from Isokan War 10; Blessing Ikeaba (Ilesa West); Sunday Akanfe Atidade (Ede South, Kuge Ward 2); Shaibu Oyedokun (Ede South, Ward 10 and 11); Bode Falade (Ejigbo Ward 2); Raji Kayode (Ejigbo Ward 5) and Lasisi Gambia (Iwo, Oke Adan Ward 2).
The APC members to be arrested include Moshood Abdulahi, Akorede Lawal and Basiru Awobode (Isokan Ward 3); Femi Fasoro, Lanre Abu, Taiye Alapa, Seyi Elese and Taye Johnson (Ilesa West); Dele Nafui (Ayedire); Peter Babalola (Irewole) as well as Ramah Ajiboye, Johnson Ojo, Adedeji Soji and Alimi Kajogbola (Ede South).
The APC said actions to be taken to swing the election in favour of the PDP were also listed in the various local government areas, including Ife Central (stuffing of ballot boxes, thuggery and physical clashes); Atakumosa East (Multiple voting, thuggery and ballot stuffing); Ife North (electoral violence); Ayedaade (electoral violence and rigging); Egbedore (snatching of ballot boxes and ballot papers) and Ede South (snatching of ballot boxes). In the local government areas, the thugs in charge of the designated evil assignment and the APC members to be arrested were also listed.
Meanwhile, the party has said it is not true that the military command is unaware of the plan to use soldiers to rig the Osun election, as 38 army officers were dispatched to Osun on Wednesday and were part of the team that disrupted the rally that was to be held in Osogbo by the NLC in support of Gov. Aregbesola.
APC said businessman “Chris Uba has been given 50 soldiers from Enugu, which he would lead to Osun for one mission and one mission only: Brutalize, intimidate or kill any APC supporter who wants to prevent PDP’s rigging. One wonders when Uba joined the army that he has now become a military commander.”
APC said the outlined rigging plans explain why the PDP has been boasting repeatedly that it would capture Osun, having successfully executed similar plans in Delta Senatorial, Anambra governorship and Ekiti governorship elections.
‘’All these point to the fact that PDP’s devilish plans to destroy our nascent democracy would stop at nothing to achieve its aim. We hereby put all stakeholders on red alert. We call on Prof. Attahiru Jega to ensure that his name does not go down in infamy as some others have.
‘’We also call on the new IGP and other security agents to show to Nigerians that they are truly professional men and women of honour. We appeal to all Nigerians and particularly the Osun electorate to be extra vigilant and ensure that their will is not subverted by this on-rushing brigade of evil,’’ the party said, vowing to put all machinery in place to safeguard the mandate of its teeming supporters and resist all forms of intimidation or devilish manipulation of the voting process.
APC said it “is confident that, in the end, millions of soldiers, police and other security agents are not enough to take on the people and crush their will, much as they will try to”.
But, The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last night dismissed the allegations by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie- Oyegun, that it planned to rig tomorrow’s governorship election in Osun as an “infantile blackmail.”
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh in a statement said the allegations were “completely wild, baseless and mere fabrications aimed at distracting PDP members and supporters and discourage them from fully participating in the election.”
The PDP described the allegation as “a ploy by the APC to make its members and supporters over-confident and divert attention from their own 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 PDP said “one of the legacies of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is free, fair and credible polls such will in no way be compromised in Osun or any other election for that matter.”
It urged its members and supporters to completely disregard the APC and come out enmasse to vote for its candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, stressing that it remains focused on the election having worked very hard to earn the confidence and support of the people of Osun state.
The PDP said it wished to “remind Nigerians of the fact that for the APC, elections are only free and fair when they win and rigged when they lose.”
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