The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has accused officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of planning to help the All Progressives Congress (APC) rig elections.
According to the PDP, the INEC officials were recruited by the APC to bribe voters in nine local governments in the state.
Speaking to newsmen, the Edo PDP Spokesman, Chris Nehikhare said “if anybody tries to present that fake results from the nine local; governments which they have written, the two million they collected will be used for their burial. It is not a threat, it is a promise.”
Nehikhare said “Now, it has come to our attention that INEC and the state government have seriously compromised the election that is going to take place tomorrow (today). The staff of INEC that is involved in this compromise is spearheaded in Edo state is being coordinated by Mrs. Sule who is the PRO of INEC. I am calling her name so that you know exactly that I know what I am talking about. People involved in this conspiracy are people that are involved that leaked this to the PDP and they have told us to act very fast.
“I know a couple of days ago Sule make a remark that we should go aheaqd and campaign which we had been doing but now I have specific and credible information that Mrs. Sule is coordinating the comprise of supervisors for and on behalf of Edo state government. They have sent two million naira to supervisors in at least nine local governments of Edo state. It is under the control of the REC from Delta state and he is coordinating on behalf of the national commissioner, Amina Zakari.”
He also said “what they have done is that they have written results in the nine local governments on behalf of the APC, these results are being held by the supervisors from the collation officers at the points where they plan to fix these results at the local government level tomorrow after the elections are done.”
In a swift reaction, the Edo APC Chairman, Anslem Ojezua dismissed the allegations saying it is a sign that the PDP has lost ground.
Ojezua also said “I am the state chairman of APC, I have been in my home area for three days, campaigning from unit to unit, door to door. So what time will I have to go and talk about bribing INEC. If anything at all it is the PDP People that knows the INEC people, after all most of these INEC officers were employed during the PDP government.
“Any serious minded party like our own, we have trained our agents and they are determined to be very vigilant. The truth is that all the plans PDP made to create havoc in Edo state have virtually failed. All the efforts they have made to manipulate the process have also failed. They can now see that there is nothing other than the true transparent process that will give us result in this election.”
The governorship elections in Edo state is scheduled to hold on Wednesday, September 28, 2016.
The Comptroller of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in Edo, Mr David Adi, has warned foreigners in the state not to get involved in the governorship election.