PDP Accuses Aregbesola Of Plotting To Rig Kogi Election
As the people of Kogi state patiently wait to go to the polls tomorrow, November 21, there have continually been accusations and counter accusations over who seems to be plotting strategies to rig the governorship elections.
In a statement issued on Thursday, November 19, the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun state said it had unveiled an alleged plan by the state governor, Rauf Aregbesola, to deploy 15,000 persons to Kogi state with the intent of rigging the elections in favour of the All Progressives Congress, Premium Times reports.
According to the party’s spokesperson, Diran Odeyemi, the plot by the Osun state governor was targeted at using voters from his state who are APC members, to garner votes for the APC candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu in Saturday’s governorship election.
READ ALSO: PDP Chieftains, Others Defect To APC Few Days To Kogi Polls
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However, Governor Idris Wada of the state had also accused the APC of trying to frustrate the opposition by mounting a well-orchestrated campaign of intimidation and harassment.
He had also said that the said move was intended to cause jitters among the opposition in order to gain an unfair advantage in Saturday’s gubernatorial election in the state, Daily Post reports.
Wada has also accused his Edo state counterpart, Governor Adams Oshiomole, of sponsoring cultists to disrupt tomorrow’s governorship election in Kogi state.
Apart from all those accusations put forward by the state governor, Odeyemi said: “Reports reaching us indicate that 15,000 members of the APC from Osun had been mobilized and would be deployed to the different local government areas in the state, particularly those where Prince Audu is popular.
“We want the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, and the director general of the Department of the State Security (DSS), Kifasi to immediately act on this information and prevent the move by Osun governor to storm Kogi with APC members from Osun.
“We want to recall the arrest of some APC members from Osun state led by the senior special assistant to Governor Aregbesola on inter-governmental affairs, Waheed Lawal, on the eve of the 2014 Anambra state governorship poll by the eagle-eyed men of DSS in Imo state enroute Anambra state.”
READ ALSO: PDP Chieftains, Others Defect To APC Few Days To Kogi Polls
Odeyemi in the statement further recalled the role Aregbesola had allegedly played in what he described as the “failed efforts” to unseat Governor Segun Mimiko in 2002 Ondo governorship poll and his financial efforts to return Kayode Fayemi to office as Ekiti state governor for another term last year June.
Calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to advise security agencies to remain neutral in the discharge of their duties, Odeyemi added that the gains recorded since the return of democracy in 1999 should not be allowed to be rubbished by a few persons in power.
In its final admonition, the party asked its members and all eligible voters to be at alert during the governorship poll in Kogi on Saturday.
In a swift reaction to the previous allegations that the presidency had been planning to rig Kogi state election, Malam Garba Shehu, the president’s senior special assistant on media and publicity, denied the claim, saying that it would accept the outcome of the election.
Meanwhile, the IGP had disclosed on Tuesday, November 17, that the police were already aware of plans by some politicians in the state to dress thugs in police uniform during the Kogi election all in a bid to cause mayhem.
Source: Legit.ng
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