Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, on Thursday, accused Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State of mobilising militants to cause havoc during the postponed Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The governorship election which was scheduled to hold on Saturday was postponed by the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, due to security concerns raised by law enforcement agencies.
Speaking when he received the National President of Nigerian Union of Journalist, NUJ, Waheed Odusile in Benin, the state capital, Oshiomhole alleged that both governors raised N2b for PDP’s governorship candidate in the poll, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, “at a time they cannot pay salaries in their states.”
According to Oshiomhole, “As we speak, both governors have raised N2billion to give to Ize-Iyamu when they could not pay salaries in their states. They mobilised militants to Edo to register, preparatory to use them for violence in this election. We have eliminated violence in our elections here but in my election in 2007 PDP members killed three people at Oba primary school and brutalised hundreds of others. But there after we have ensured free and fair election in Edo State.
“But we have asked our people to be on the watch out, during the continuous voters registration exercise, many of them came into town and to my shock INEC registered many of them. But at least we were able to apprehend 13 and we handed them over to the police. During the same period in Etsako Central, they carried data capturing machines and turned private residence to registration centers. We did not take laws into our hand, we reported to the police.
“The guy whose house was being used, we reported to the police. We insisted that the police should charge them to court and after they did that they were granted them bail. And all these are PDP players.
“In the course of distributing the PVCs last week at Igueben, Some PDP thugs came to forcibly hijack PVCs from the officer that was distributing them at a school in Igueben and he ran into the residence of the PDP leader. Those PVC cards were recovered by the DSS.
“As we speak many militants have been imported into Edo state and the security agents are aware of this. For us we are ready for the election but we know that PDP has perfected plans to unleash violence. If you watch their public pronouncements, Ize-Iyamu has talked about cancellation and inconclusive elections.
“As we speak I do not know what has been done about the EO that made the data capturing machine available for illegal registration in private residence. We want a peaceful environment to be able to get our people out to vote.”
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