The All Progressives Congress (APC) has alerted Nigerians to what it described as a plan involving an official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwarts to rig Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Osun State.
The allegation came on a day the APC also said United States Aid Agency (USAID) had contradicted the claim by the PDP that a poll conducted by USAID favoured it to win the Osun poll.
In a statement in Lagos, yesterday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC said under the alleged plan, an INEC IT staff handed over the electoral register for the state to a special assistant to a top PDP national official, with a view to manipulating it to disenfranchise many voters in the Osun election.
’’For those who may see this as outlandish, they should recall that an INEC official tampered with the voters register used during the last gubernatorial election in Anambra State to remove the names of many voters,’’ the party said.
APC said the plan to tamper with the electoral register for Osun, coupled with INEC’s delay in issuing Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) to registered voters, especially those who are APC members in the state, highlight the desperation of the PDP to win the governorship election at all cost.
’’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-recognized TNS-RMS shows that the APC leads among voters in the state by 73%, compared to a paltry 19% for the PDP”, it stated.
’’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,’’ APC said.
