WAHALA DE! Omisore’s canvassers in trouble over fund…as he issues ultimatum for refund Sequel to his defeat at the August 9, 2014 governorship election in the State of Osun, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate in the election, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has reportedly turned his anger on the party mobilisers across the 30 local government council areas of the state. According to an impeccable source within the party, the party flag-bearer was more than disappointed over the outcome of the gubernatorial election in which he was flatly beaten by the incumbent governor of the state and the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. The source further revealed that days before the election, Omisore had boasted to whoever cared to listen that the election was just a mere formality as he had been assured by the powers that be in Abuja that irrespective of the outcome of the election, he would be announced as the winner. However, not taken chances with the Abuja assurance, the PDP candidate was reported to have raised a group of mobilisers from among his loyalists within the party and saddled them with the responsibility of persuading the electorate on queue on the election day with monetary gifts. To make their jobs easier, the source revealed that large chunk of money was made available to the mobilisers with instruction to disburse the cash at the rate of N10,000 per voter depending on how strong the ruling-APC was in such area. The mobilisers, according to the medium’s findings, also played smart while disbursing the money on election day, as the highest amount given to any voter that received the cash was between N2,000 and N2,500. There was however the case of a particular polling unit in Osogbo, the state capital, where the PDP mobiliser was observed to have given money to 347 would-be voters on the queue, while at the end of the exercise, the PDP candidate scored only 55 votes. Angered by his dismal outing at the poll, Omisore was further reported to have sent out his men to go after the mobilisers and retrieve his money from them, since by his own calculation, the votes he got did not commensurate with the number of votes he scored at the end of the exercise. One of the mobilisers, who is currently on the run, confided in OSUN DEFENDER that he had to run away from those Omisore sent with members of his immediate family, as he could not actually account for the money given to him to mobilise votes for his principal. According to him, he actually distributed cash to some of the would-be voters on queue as instructed by their principal but was surprised to see that the number of votes recorded by his party candidate did not commensurate with cash he disbursed at the polling unit. All efforts to speak with Omisore’s spokesman, Diran Odeyemi, to comment on the development proved abortive as all his known telephone lines could not go through. It was also gathered that some of the mobilisers did not distribute part of the money meant for the mobilisers, banking on the assurance by the Federal Government that the Osun election was a done-deal for the PDP. Some of the affected mobilisers were overheard at Adepele Guest House, Osogbo, few days ago, complaining regretting about their involvement in the development, vowing that they would never be part of such an arrangement in their lives again. “This is about the first time that a candidate will demand for refund of election money after such election has been held. It is unheard of in my so many decades’ involvement in active partisan politics. If God should see me through this challenge this time around, I will never be involved again. My children should not hear about the development. It is nauseating. I am not growing younger”, one of the affected canvassers lamented. The elderly canvasser advised the other younger canvassers to go and return the Omisore money as he would not have anything to do with the situation when it gets out of hand. Investigation showed that Omisore has issued an ultimatum to the canvassers who might still be holding on to his money where he lost the election to pay up or be ready to see the red part of his eyes.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 07:10:56 +0000
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