APC colluding with INEC over Oyo bye-election —LP

· Allegation impossible, spurious —INEC, APC

THE Labour Party Oyo State chapter has alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in league with some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is planning to bring in voters for Ogbomosho area to vote in today’s bye election in Oorelope State Constituency.

Chairman of the party, Mr Gbenga Olayemi, who made the allegation while speaking with the Saturday Tribune,  said part of the plan was to allow the ‘imported voters’ bypass accreditation through the smart card readers to rig the election for APC.

Olayemi explained that the APC came up with “the game plan” after a stakeholders’ meeting convened by INEC earlier in the week agreed that Oorelope Local Government Area of the state be excluded from the planned distribution of new permanent voter cards (PVCs) until after the election.

But INEC’s head of department, Election and Party Monitoring (EPM), Mr Ariyo Ayoola, said there was no way anybody could bring PVCs from other places to be used for today’s election.

“For those who know the way our system works, they will know that is not possible. The card readers have been configured. Whoever is saying that is just raising unnecessary alarm.

“We had a stake holders’ meeting earlier in the week where decision was taken unanimously that distribution of PVCs should not hold in Oorelope after the election,” he said.

APC, reacting through its director of media and strategy, Wale Sadare, said the allegation was not only spurious but also laughable.

“We challenge them to come up with facts to prove their allegations. Or else, they should begin to work towards 2019 and that is even if some of them will be relevant as opposition parties,” he said.