Barely five days to July 8 bye-election in Osun West Senatorial District, Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and 10 other political parties on Sunday vowed to resist alleged plan by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the exercise.
They alleged that information available to them indicated that the electoral umpire had concluded plan to officially announce the shift of the date of the poll at a meeting with political parties and other stakeholders today (Monday).
Addressing a press conference in Ede, the party chairmen joined by two stalwarts of the All Progressive Congress (APC) said to have dumped the party, warned the electoral body against postponing the election date saying “moral burden is on INEC not to shift the Osun West bye-election election.”
The other parties are: All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Action Alliance (AA), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Green Party of Nigeria (GPN), and Alliance for Democracy (AD), Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN).
Speaking on behalf of the parties under the umbrella of Conference of All Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), the chairman of DPP, Prince Gbade Adelakun who also doubles as the secretary of CNPP claimed there were strong indications that INEC was being pressurised by the APC to to move the election date forward.
Adelakun, flanked by other chairmen of the political parties also accused the APC of allegedly using public school pupils in the state for data capturing ahead of the by election, disclosing that the ruling party had concluded plans to connive with some thugs in the state to rig the election.
The parties, however, charged security agencies in Osun to nip in the bud possible rigging of the election through the use of some political thugs they referred to as “State Boys.”
Adelakun said the APC was scared of imminent loss they would suffer at the poll, noting that this development informed their alleged pressure on INEC to shift the election date.
According to him, “We oppose plans by the INEC to shift the date of the Osun West by election. Moral burden is on INEC not to shift the election date. We had met with the leadership of INEC and we told them that the election should on July 22, but the INEC changed it to July 8 and we agreed. But, information at our disposal revealed that APC are putting pressures on INEC to shift the election date forward.
“We have it on good authority that pupils from the state public schools in the state are being used by APC for data capturing and thumb printing; what for? Why? They are also conniving with “State Boys”, notorious gang group, to rig election. We therefore called on security agencies to prevent rigging.”
The two APC stalwarts, Alhaji Bayo Aminu, from Ede South local government and Alhaji Lukman Afolabi, former secretary of Ede South Local Government, who attended the briefing said they were in support of the call to the electoral body not to shift the election date maintaining that their APC was interested in the postponement of the election.
The political parties however revealed that they had instructed their members to cast their votes for the candidate of PDP, Dr Ademola Adeleke in the poll.
Reacting to the allegations of the CNPP, the director, publicity, research and strategy of the APC in Osun, Barrister Kunle Oyatomi said “the CNPP for this election is an extension of PDP. They have so compromised themselves that they have become blind and deaf.”
“They seemed so mentally lazy that they are merely repeating the unconfirmed allegations the PDP raised against APC. INEC has said the PDP lied in respect of postponement of the Saturday election, so CNPP repetition makes no sense at all.”
“On the issue of students, we would like to accept that those in politics have some modicum of intelligence that if you are not on the voter’s register, and you don’t have all the certification of INEC to vote, you have no business being in polling booth. So why is CNPP troubling their mentality with falsehood?
They should know from public records that APC has never lost any election since 2011, including the Osun West Senatorial District. We have the voters and we don’t need to hire toddlers to vote for us”, Oyatomi asserted.
When our correspondent contacted the administrative secretary of INEC in the state, Barrister Emmanuel Ademushire, he did not pick put through to his mobile phone, neither did he reply the text sent to him.