Abeokuta: By Sina ODUNTAN
Published, March 21, 2023.
THE STATE CHAIRMAN, Peoples Democratic Party, Ogun State in the party's reaction to the Sunday declaration of Prince Dapo Abiodun, the incumbent governor of Ogun State as the winner of March18 governorship election has indicted both the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies for their unpatriotic connivance with the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and Governor Dapo Abiodun to brazenly rig the results of the governorship and house of assembly elections.
Specifically, Dr Sikirulai Ogundele, the PDP State Chairman posited that the Nigeria Police and the military provided strong cover for gun-wielding criminals to disrupt and burn ballot boxes in over 100 polling units across the state.
Ogundele made this known in a press coference held at the Park Inn, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital city Monday where various party leaders including Comrade Kehinde Sogunle, governorship candidate of Labour Party, and the governorship candidate of PDP, Hon Oladipupo Olatunde Adebutu also opened the can of worms on what transpired during the six and half of polling.
He said the polling units which costituted PDP strongholds were strategically targetted by the hudlums and political thugs who were on motorbikes, three on each bike, wielding sophisticated weapons.
It should be recalled that the party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, days before the election, invited the attention of the general public to the devilish plans of the ruling All Progressives Congress to launch a large-scale disruption of electoral process and possible snatching of ballot boxes in any polling units perceived to be PDP's stronghold during the gubernatorial election.
The PDP also warned and charged the Nigeria Police and other security agencies not to hold all signals with kid gloves.
State Chairman PDP,, Ogun State
The party Chairman said despite their warnings, the security agencies were not only found wanting but, also, iaided the criminals.
Dr. Ogundele in another vein pointed out the Chairman of Sagamu Local Government, Afolabi Odulate was allegedly arrested with AK-47 automatic rifle, adding that "the Chairman and Publicity Secretary of the government-controlled transport union, Efele and Danny" who were also arrested, led criminal squads to disrupt polling units. He said those recognised individuals who were arrested by the security agencies were promptly set free within one hour.
He revealed that the criminals who shot sporadically to scare the voters hyjacked and snatched ballot boxes and burnt thumbprinted ballot papers.
The PDP Chairman lamented that the gubernatorial election of last Saturday was heavily characterised with unprecedented needless violence in several local government areas including Sagamu where 54 polling units were attacked by APC sponsored thugs who snatched ballot boxes and other sensitive election materials were carted away and burnt to ashes.
He gave other locations where similar calculated violent harrssment of voters and destruction of voting materials as Odogbolu LGA, Ikenne, Remo North, Ifo, Ogun waterside, Abeokuta South, Abeokuta North, Ipokia, Ado Odo Ota, Ijebu East, Ijebu North East, Obafemi Owode and Ijebu Ode. A total of 14 local governments out of the 20.
Dr Ogundele was dismayed when the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC legalised and legitimized the atrocities committed by hudlums in connivance with the APC and its governorship candidate, Prince Dapo Abiodun, saying INEC failed to acknowledge the disruption of votes in these local governments and follow the provision of Section 24 subsection 3 and section 51 subsection 3 of the electoral act as amended.
"It is self-evident that INEC has made itself a willing tool in the hands of the peoples forsaken APC.
"With tangible proofs of reckless manipulation, over voting and gross disregard for the dictates and provisions of the electoral law 2022, we can safely say that the figures announced by INEC as the final result of the governorship election does not represent the popular wish of the people.
"It should also be placed on record that despite the fact that our party notified the Returning Officer of the position of the electoral law on situations where the margin of winning is lower than the number of disenfranchised voters, a rerun should be held, a petition was also submitted to the INEC which was acknowledged by the REC but was not attended to, yet the result was announced and declared against the provision of the electoral law.
The Returning Officer, Prof. Kayode Adebowale of the University of Ibadan refused and purposely did not mention the total cancelled votes because he knew it was way over the winning margin multiple times, he hurriedly announced the result", he explained.
No comments:
Post a Comment