Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu has accused stalwarts of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, of planning to win the forthcoming election at all costs.
Ize-Iyamu, in a statement through his Campaign Organization said the plan involved using security agencies and some staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to favour the APC candidate, Godwin Obaseki.
This was in reaction to an alleged meeting held by the APC leaders with their Unit Heads on Friday at the former Leventis House, Sokponba Road, Benin City.
PDP alleged that the Unit Heads were instructed to disrupt any polling unit where the PDP candidate wins during voting and counting of ballots papers.
The statement reads: “We have been informed by an insider at the meeting that APC leaders further warned their members that the election results must not be allowed to be declared by INEC Presiding Officers should PDP wins in any unit in the state.
“The insider further informed us that APC had finally given up any hope of winning the election, and they are now planning crude measures to rig the election, including making their members as INEC ad-hoc staff members. And if this is what they are planning then, they have failed because our members have been instructed to defend their votes by all means necessary.”
The campaign added that APC had also deployed huge sums of money to their collaborators in the state in a bid to prevail on them to help in the plot, while PVCs in various wards across the state were being collected by APC’s leaders daily and in some cases the serial numbers copied out for cloning.
“Our evidence is very strong. We know for sure that the APC is planning with their collaborators to withhold campaign materials from all the areas in Edo State where the PDP has clear voting majority supporters.”
The plan, according to the statement, will lead to an electoral crisis that would invariably force INEC to declare the election inconclusive, adding that the APC in Edo had also perfected plans to influence INEC officials to supply faulty Card Readers to areas where PDP is very strong in order to deprive and reduce PDP votes.
“They have also mapped out seven local government councils where they will disrupt election results and make the election inconclusive. We therefore strongly recommend to INEC to be law-abiding and fair to all to avoid crisis it may not be able to manage.
“On our part, we have advised all PDP member and indeed Edo people to be law abiding, for victory is ours,” Ize-Iyamu’s team said.
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