Osun Guber Poll: PDP Has Allocated 409,916 Votes To Itself, Says APC — Aug 8, 2014 The All Progressives Congress (APC) has uncovered the Peoples Democratic Party’s manual for rigging Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State. Two documents, complete with projected fake results in all the 30 local government areas of the state, were prepared by the PDP in Osun, it said. At a press conference in Osogbo yesterday, APC national chairman John Odigie-Oyegun said the documents containing the rigging plans were now in the possession of the APC. The first, he said, is a “secret” document marked ‘’HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL’’ that contains a meticulous outline of the plot 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. The second document, entitled ‘’Task Force: Operation (PDP) takeover of Osun’’, he stated, lists the actions to be taken at most of the 30 local government areas in the state, including thuggery, snatching of ballot boxes and instigation of violent clashes. In addition, the PDP members are to coordinate the recommended actions and the APC members are to be arrested to pave the way for such actions. The party said the “secret” document further 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 of Osun State, in addition to a plan to de-register 47,000 voters whose voter identification numbers have been illegally acquired so they won’t find their names on the voter register on election day. APC said the document also contains the number of pre-allotted votes for each local government area to make up the number 406,916, which the PDP has pre-allotted to itself even before the commencement of voting. The party 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). The party said the 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” 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 intimidation, harassment and arrest of APC party chieftains, agents and sympathizers who are uncompromising or refuse their offer of filthy lucre. APC said the second document, a part of which was written in long hand, contains even more damning evidence that the PDP has decided to employ rigging, thuggery and other acts of violence to “win” Osun at all cost on Saturday. 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’’ to foment trouble on election day. The members are Adedotun Adebowale (alias Marcel), Kingsley Awosiyan, Muyiwa Odikunrin, Wale Ojo, Kola Oladipupo and Kako Banji. The PDP members to be provided with “Strike Force” to enable them disrupt voting, stuff ballot boxes or snatch ballot papers were listed as Halif A. Adeniran from Isokan Ward 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). 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). 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 LGAs, 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. Also, it said that 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. Reacting, the PDP director of media and strategy, Prince Diran Odeyemi, said the allegations were false. According to him, PDP is committed to a free, fair, and credible election that will be acceptable to not only Nigerians but the international community. He stated that if APC had such information and was sure of it, they would have done well by congratulating the PDP. Allegation infantile blackmail - PDP The PDP national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement yesterday said the allegations were completely wild, baseless and mere fabrications aimed at distracting PDP members and supporters and discouraging them from fully participating in the election. It said the allegation was a ploy by the APC to make its members and supporters over-confident and divert attention to their own sinister plan. Stating that there will 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, adding that “such will in no way be compromised in Osun or any other election for that matter”. It therefore called on its members and supporters to completely disregard the APC and come out en masse 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 party reminded Nigerians of the fact that, for the APC, elections are only free and fair when it wins and rigged when it loses. Wearing of masks by police illegal - Falana Human rights activist Chief Femi Falana yesterday described the decision by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deploy armed police personnel wearing masks to man the polling units and bar individual voters from using telephone handsets and other gadgets to take photographs of ballot papers in tomorrow’s governorship poll in Osun as totally misleading and part of the culture of impunity in Nigeria. Falana in a statement said it was not too late in the day for the commission “to jettison the illegal plot to manipulate the governorship election in Osun State” through such a decision taken at an interactive meeting by INEC chairman Professor Attahiru Jega and the inspector-gener al of police, Mr Suleiman Abah, with the governorship candidates and political party representatives in Osun State at Osogbo yesterday. Quoting section 125 (3) of the Electoral Act 2011 (as amended) which provides for the secrecy of voting as limited to individual voters, Falana noted that the law only stipulates that no person should interfere with a voter casting his vote or obtain in a polling unit information as to the candidate for whom a voter in that place is about to vote for or has voted for. He said, “The above provision of the law does not prevent voters from recording the details of ballot papers in the course of casting their votes once they do not obtain information from other voters concerning the candidates they may have voted for. “It is therefore totally misleading on the part of the INEC leadership to say that it is illegal to take photographs at the polling units. If INEC has nothing to hide, it should not prevent voters from recording the details of their individual ballot papers. “Secondly, it is public knowledge that the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has been campaigning with masked men with the connivance of the police authorities. Instead of banning the provocative harassment of law-abiding citizens by the official terrorists, the government has announced that many more of such masked men would be deployed under the pretext of maintaining law and order during the Osun State governorship election.” Noting that Section 280 of the Nigeria Police Force Regulations provides that “Orders of dress and dress regulations shall be promulgated by the Inspector-General of Police in Force Orders”, Falana argued that the IGP has neither promulgated that police personnel involved in election duties should wear masks nor published any such dress order in the Police Force Orders. He said, “To that extent, it is illegal on the part of the police or other security personnel not to wear name tags for proper identification during election duties. In the recently concluded governorship election in Ekiti State, there was no deployment of security personnel wearing masks. What has warranted the desperate deployment of masked men to police the Osun State governorship election? “If the INEC is committed to the conduct of transparent governorship election in Osun State, it should not prevent voters from recording the exercise with electronic gadgets. If the police authorities are committed to the maintenance of law and order, they should withdraw all masked police and security personnel from election duties in Osun State. “Having regard to the level of mobilization on ground and the vigilance of the people of Osun State, the federal government should be held responsible for the imminent breakdown of law and order by armed thugs who have been officially sanctioned to hide behind the masks to rig the Osun State governorship election,” he added. Osun monarchs call for peaceful election Ahead of tomorrow’s governorship election in Osun State, the state Council of Obas yesterday charged the candidates to embrace peace during and after the election. The Obas gave the charge at a meeting held at the palace of the chairman, Osun Council of Traditional Rulers, the Ooni of Ile-Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade. A release signed by Oba Sijuwade urged the electorates to conduct themselves in a peaceful manner. The council advised the governorship candidates to shelve their personal interest for that of the state. They however called on the people to cooperate with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the law enforcement agents to ensure a hitch-free election. Osun governorship election should not be militarised - NLC The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said it is worried by the deployment of armed security men and women to Osun State as part of preparations ahead of the governorship election scheduled to hold this Saturday across the state. The union, in a statement by its president, Comrade Abduwahed Omar, said it believes 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 Service (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,” the union stated. It stressed that inasmuch as elections are very important to any democracy, “we caution that the state should not be turned into a war”. I have not stepped down for PDP - LP candidate Labour Party governorship candidate in Osun State Alhaji Fatai Akinbade has dispelled the rumour making the rounds that he has stepped down for the PDP candidate. Akinbade, who briefed the press yesterday in Osogbo, said all indices pointed to the fact that only LP is a grassroots party that has endeared itself to the populace and has come to wrestle power from the government of APC and thuggery-infested PDP. Alhaji Akinbade debunked the rumour of stepping down for the candidate of APC or PDP, saying that he has been in politics before both and have galvanised experience lacking in both Aregbesola and Omisore. He said: “The rumour of stepping down for the candidate of either Aregbesola or Omisore is done to destabilize my teeming supporters, but they have both failed. LP is the party to beat on Saturday; we are not only on ground but solid in all the local governments and mostly at the grass roots where 80 per cent of voters reside. “If there is anybody to step down, the candidates of APC and PDP should step down for me. ‘”What are the manifestoes of the two parties? None. Only Labour Party has manifesto and this endeared us to the people of the state. We are ready for Saturday’s election and we know that by God’s grace LP will win the election.” On another candidate printing poster as governorship candidate of the party, Alhaji Akinbade said he was unknown to the party hierarchy in Abuja, said that he Akinbade remains the authentic candidate of the LP in Osun State. “The one coming out claiming he is the candidate of LP in Osun State has been reported to the police and he is now on the run. Soon, he will be apprehended by the law enforcement agents to tell his story.” The LP candidate however commended the Independent National Electoral Commission for blocking the rigging machinery of elections in the country, urging it to make Saturday’s governorship election free, fair and credible. Osun declares Friday public holiday The state government has declared today as a public holiday to allow voters living within and outside the state capital to travel to their various towns for the governorship poll. A statement by the state commissioner for information and strategy, Hon. Sunday Akere, said that the holiday is to enable residents and civil servants, who would be traveling to different parts of the state to perform their civic duties, and have enough time to travel without hitches. He charged the electorate in the state to conduct themselves peacefully while traveling to their destinations and at their various polling units during the poll on Saturday. The commissioner counselled members of the public not to panic because of the heavy presence of security operatives in the state, saying they are in the state to ensure their safety and credibility of the election on Saturday. He added that the state governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, is committed to security of life and property in the state at all times and that Saturday would not be an exception. Akere appealed to the people of the state to troop out en masse to exercise their franchise on Saturday without fear of being intimidated by anyone. In the same vein, the state government has instructed all OYES cadets across the state not to wear their uniform to the polling units while calling on security agents to arrest anybody found wearing the uniform, as they would be nothing but fake. Leadership. 7
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 18:48:41 +0000
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