By Francis Ogbuagu Benin City
The People Democratic Party(PDP) Friday alleged that the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress ( APC) Comrade Adams Oshiomohole, the APC and the INEC electoral Commissioner in Edo State,Mustapha Leeky,have planned to rig Edo State governorship election.
The Publicity Secretary of the PDP in Edo State,Mr Chris Nehikhare made this allegation in a press briefing at the PDP campaign office in Benin City. He said that the INEC electoral Commissioner in Edo, Mustapha Leeky was a personal nominee of the former National Chairman of the APC,and he(Leeky) had concluded plans with the APC’s candidate for the September 19 election to rig the Edo State gubernatorial election using fake NYSC Corp members.
According to him.”We are constrained to bring to the notice of Edo People,Nigerians and all lovers of democracy, steps being taken by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) National Commissioner,Dr Mustapha Leeky,who is acting the script of Comrade Adams Oshiomohole,Mr Osagie Ize-iyamu and the All Progressives Congress in Edo State towards subverting the Will of the Edo electorate in the September 19 gubernatorial election.”
“The time-honoured tradition which mandates that all political parties involved in the electioneering process submit names of persons to be used as Ad-hoc staff is being abused by Dr. Lecky and his collaborators in the APC.
“Dr. Lecky, it has been gathered, has skewed the process to ensure it favours one party, whereby the final list released for training of the adhoc staff has a ratio of 10:1, between the APC and all other parties.
“Specifically, what has transpired in the recruitment of these personsis such that:
The Polling Officers (PO), who are supposed to be serving National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) members have been changed and Oshiomhole and Ize-Iyamu are nominating people, most of whom are not youth corps members, to fill these positions to actualize their plans to rig the election
“The Supervisory Polling Officers are also being engaged by Dr. Lecky to serve the interest of the APC.For the Collation Officers (CO), Dr. Lecky has been influencing the engagement of persons, with personal ties with Oshiomhole and Ize-Iyamu, to rig the election in favour of the APC during the polls and undermine the electoral process.”
“We hereby call on the INEC leadership to review the process of selecting these officials and request that Dr. Lecky excuse himself from the process as his activities have been revealed to be threatening the integrity of the process, which will taint the outcome of the election.” He concluded
Reacting, the Publicity Secretary of APC in Edo State,Chris Azebamwan said, “This is a phantom and imaginary transaction, I can tell you authoritatively that the APC has not and cannot delve into the affairs of a statutory body recognised by the electoral law to conduct elections in this country.
“This is another ploy by the PDP and Governor Obaseki to distract Nigerians and Edo people from the matter at hand. Obaseki is the outgoing governor, he should be preparing his handover notes instead of misleading the people because he is aware of his obvious imminent defeat so there is no truth in this frivolous allegation.”
