All Progressives Congress (APC) said on Thursday it has uncovered an alleged Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) manual to rig Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State, “complete with projected fake results in all the 30 local government areas of the state”. Addressing a press conference in Osogbo, APC National Chairman, John Odigie Oyegun, alleged that the rigging plans were contained in two documents prepared by the PDP in Osun, and which are now in the possession of the APC. The first, according to Oyegun, is a ‘secret’ document marked ‘HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL’ that contains a meticulous outline of plans 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 PDP. The second document, entitled ‘Task Force: Operation (PDP) takeover of Osun’, the APC chieftain added, “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, the PDP members to coordinate the recommended actions and the APC members to be arrested to pave the way for such actions”. Oyegun 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 Voters Identification Numbers have been illegally acquired so they won’t find their names on the voters register on election day”. He said the document also contains the number of pre- allotted votes for each local government to make up the number of 406,116, which the PDP has pre-allotted to itself even before the commencement of voting! APC 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 alleged that “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”. APC said the mandate of the task force includes the intimidation, harassment and arrest of APC party chieftains, agents and sympathisers who are uncompromising or refuse their offer of filthy lucre. APC said the second document, a part of which was written in longhand, contained even more damning evidence that the PDP has decided to employ rigging, thuggery and other acts of violence to ‘win’ Osun at all costs 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). “Also, 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,” it added. 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 Governor Rauf Aregbesola. Also, it said “Chris Uba has been given 50 soldiers from Enugu, which he would lead to Osun for one mission and one mission only: Brutalise, 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 alleged that 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 electorates 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 supporters and resist all forms of intimidation or manipulation of the voting process. APC said it was 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”. Meanwhile, Chairman INEC, Jega, said on Thursday it is possible for Nigeria to conduct a free, fair and credible election without involvement of the armed forces. He added though that the systemic security challenges that the country is bedevilled with and the strong tendencies of Nigerian politicians to manipulate elections may not make that feasible at the moment. Jega said this in his keynote address at the 2014 Annual General Meeting of the Newspapers Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos. Speaking on the heavy presence of security personnel in Osun State ahead of Saturday’s governorship election, Jega said the essence of involving the military and other security agencies in the election is to safeguard the electoral materials, protect the electorate and INEC officials from harassment and attack as well prevent politicians and thugs from hijacking the process. “Yes. We can have credible elections without soldiers. That is the ideal. That is what we want to see. “I have observed elections in some countries where on Election Day, we hardly see armed policemen, not to talk of the army. “But there are also countries where, by law, the chief electoral officer of that country has the control of the armed forces on a few days preceding election and few days after the election. “So, it depends on the context, the kind of security challenges that a country has. That is what determines what role the armed forces can play in an electoral process. “I can tell you, in December 2010, just a few months to the 2011 election, we came out with the idea of establishing what we called Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, at the national level it is chaired by the National Security Adviser and co-chaired by the Chairman of INEC. “At the state level, it is co- chaired by the Commissioner of Police and the Resident Electoral Commissioner. “The idea is to have a coordinated approach to providing security on Election Day. It is very important to secure the materials, to secure the personnel and to secure the environment for voting. “I went to Egypt on their last election. The military is everywhere even with machine guns at polling units. “So, it is the extent of security challenges that you have that determine what role the security agencies can play. “In Nigeria, the way we define the role of security is that in the polling unit, there will be an average of three armed policemen. “Then outside of the polling unit, like a radius of 300 metres, then you can have patrols by mobile policemen and checkpoints. “And then the army will address what we call outside peripheral cordon which is at the point of entering the state and all the major cities,” Jega noted. He added this was to prevent massive movement of thugs and arms few days preceding the election. “So, this is the role we have defined. Anything that is done outside of that role is an aberration. “Sometimes, there is overzealousness on the part of the soldiers that have been sent and other security agencies. This is a consistent issue that we want to address. “But I want people to understand that the use of military is not necessarily at the incentive of participating in an election.” Jega, who assure that the Osun election will rank best when compared to previous ones conducted in Nigeria, said INEC got information that some political parties are trying to import arms and thugs into the state to disrupt the election. He said this explains why the presence of security officials was needed to prevent such from happening. He also discountenanced the claim that the presence of the military was to intimidate the electorate and dissuade them from coming out to vote. The last election in Ekiti recorded the highest turn out in governorship election because people were motivated by the security arrangement put in place by the government, the electoral umpire added. “In fact, the Ekiti election, we had where people were complaining about the highest number of military mobilisation, some people have even accurately called it militarised which I contest as a political scientist; the turnout of voters in Ekiti was 49 per cent. “It is the highest in all the governorship election we have done since 2011, as well as all the individual governorship elections. “So, the presence of the security gave people the courage to come out and vote.” Speaking on Saturday’s election in Osun State, Jega said the ballot papers that will be used in each local government are different from each other, stressing that cloning ballot papers will be difficult and that any voter who brings a voter’s card not meant for a local government to another would be automatically disqualified. Also, a bizarre scenario was witnessed early Thursday morning when three cash- laden helicopters landed on the play field of the Government Technical College, Osogbo, to the consternation of members of the public who witnessed the spectacle. The choppers, belonging to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), landed at about 10.00 a.m. under tight security bearing with it cartons of cash for distribution to interested persons who obviously were aware of its coming in advance. More than 100 people gathered around the choppers and were heard discussing in hushed tones that they were waiting to be given the money in the craft. This drew the attention of more people who stood on the opposite side of the dual carriageway to behold what was going on. Speculations were rife on Thursday that the Police helicopters were used to haul cash meant to prosecute the next Saturday’s election. At the time of filing this report, the Police helicopters were still parked on the field while some young ladies were seen guarding the choppers. Osun State chapter of the APC also on Thursday alleged that some members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) were given instructions by INEC on how to perfect rigging in the Saturday election to PDP candidate. In a statement by state Chairman and Publicity Secretary, Adelowo Adebiyi and Kunle Oyatomi, respectively said a meeting at Ayedaade Grammar School in Ikire had corps member that will serve in Ikire Federal Constituency tutored on how to handle the ballot papers to favour rigging. The party said corps members were instructed to fold all ballot papers vertically before they are handed over to eligible voters. In a related development, the Osun State Council of Traditional Rulers has charged all the governorship candidates in the race to embrace peace during and after the election. The traditional rulers in a statement after their monthly meeting Osogbo also appealed to the electorate to conduct themselves in a peaceful manner. In the statement signed by Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the monarchs advised the governorship candidates to shelve their personal interest for that of the state.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 03:00:40 +0000
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