APC, INEC Creating Illegal Polling Units To Rig Osun Election – PDP Alleges

APC, INEC Creating Illegal Polling Units To Rig Osun Election – PDP Alleges

The Peoples Democratic Party has accused the All Progressives Congress of conniving with Independent National Electoral Commission to create illegal polling units with the intention to rig the poll.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, however, said the party would dismantle all the plots of APC.

He said, “We have also alerted Nigerians that the APC in connivance with INEC was creating illegal polling units and delineating illegal wards across the federation.

“It will interest you to know that just as we are preparing for the Osun election, we have been able to burst one of those fictitious electoral wards created for APC to rig election.

“Ila Local Government has 11 electoral wards, but ahead of tomorrow’s (today) election, INEC has created an imaginary 12th ward for Ila and allocated over 4,000 votes for that ward, and that ward is called Iperin.

“What they have done is to create two wards in Iperin, instead of one; allocated votes for both wards including the original ward and the fictitious ward.”

The party spokesperson pointed out that PDP would not accept rigging, saying, “as we promised, we will dismantle every rigging‎ plots of APC ahead of the election.”

He added, “It is strange that an electoral body will connive and collude with a political party with the intention of generating votes that will make them win an election.

“The PDP is making an outright demand that INEC withdraws this fictitious electoral ward from its database. We have also directed our members to continue to monitor the devious plans of the APC and INEC during Osun election.

“We know the members of the APC who hailed from Ila, and we also know those the votes have been carved out for, but we totally reject the sudden and emergency creation of a fictitious ward. The PDP will not accept any result that comes from Iperin if INEC insists on allowing votes in the two Iperin ward.

“We have a situation room in Osun, we have our men on ground and we have a photocopy of INEC checklist. Ordinarily, if INEC is delineating constituency, where two or three wards shares a name, they will give it the numeral figures; like this Iperin, would have been Iperin 1 and Iperin 2, but what we have in this situation is Iperin, Iperin.

“And to also showcase the fact that this is a deliberate plot, we discovered that the figures allocated to the two Iperin wards are different, one has over 4,000 votes, the other has over 2,000 votes.”

Ologbondiyan explained that it was a ploy to generate 6,000 votes instead of 2,000 votes. “We are not yet aware of the number of local governments where this is currently happening, but like I said earlier, the PDP is determined in this Osun election to dismantle all the rigging plans and all the rigging plots of the APC ahead of the 2019 elections.”

Meanwhile, INEC in a swift response, urged members of the public to disregard the allegation that it created illegal polling units in Osun ahead of the Saturday governorship election in the state.

The Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Abuja.

Oyekanmi stated this while reacting to an allegation by the PDP that the commission created illegal polling units in Osun.

He described the allegation as baseless and false alarm.

“The commission hereby urges the general public, especially the good people of Osun State to disregard the baseless allegations and false alarm made and raised by the PDP.

“The commission also wishes to reiterate its determination to ensure that only the votes of the Osun State people, as would be freely expressed in Saturday’s governorship election, will determine who becomes the next governor of the state,” Oyekanmi said.