The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked INEC to urgently
\ncirculate to all political parties the Voters Identification Numbers
\n(VINs) of all unclaimed Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and publicly
\ndeclare that anyone in possession of any PVC with any of such numbers
\nis an impostor who must be arrested if he or she tries to use it.<\/p>\n
In a communique issued after the emergency meeting of its National
\nExecutive Committee (NEC) in Osogbo on Wednesday, the party said in
\naddition to circulating the VINs of the unclaimed PVCs, INEC must
\npublicly declare invalid for the purpose of the August 9, Osun
\ngovernorship election all the PVCs with the circulated VINs.<\/p>\n
It said the circulation of the VINs of the unclaimed PVCs and the
\nINEC’s declaration as invalid of all PVCs bearing the VINs for the
\nSaturday election is the irreducible minimal condition for the Aug.
\n9th Governorship Election to be free, fair, credible and transparent.<\/p>\n
APC strongly warns against the plan by the PDP-led Federal Government
\nto rig the Osun election through financial inducements and also by
\nusing the security agents who have been deployed to Osun State in
\ntheir thousands, especially soldiers and State Security Service (SSS)
\nofficials, to arrest key leaders of the party.<\/p>\n
”The party has received information that at a meeting held overnight
\nin Osogbo involving top officials of the PDP and the Federal
\nGovernment as well as INEC officials, a huge sum of money was
\nearmarked for payment to key electoral officials to rig Saturday’s
\nelection in favour of the PDP.
\n”At the same meeting it was resolved that APC leaders like Senator
\nJide Omoworare, Hon. Rotimi Makinde and others will immediately be put
\nunder house arrest and their movements severely restricted as soon as
\nthey cast their votes. Any arrest, harassment and intimidation of our
\nleaders, as was massively done in Ekiti, will be totally unacceptable
\nand deemed as orchestrated to rig the election,” the party said.
\nIt also said that based on credible information, the rural farm
\nsettlements around Ile-Ife and Ilesha, among others, have been
\nidentified as areas where the 500,000 cloned cards and other PVCs
\nillegally obtained will be used mostly on Saturday.<\/p>\n
APC condemns the rumored plan by the security not to allow party
\nagents within 5 metres of the polling booths to be used for Saturday’s
\nelection, calling it a ploy to make it impossible for all accredited
\nagents to perform their statutory duty of verifying the identity of
\nthose coming to be accredited to vote.<\/p>\n
”Accreditation is the bedrock of a free and fair election and once
\nthe security, whether military or otherwise, succeeds in preventing
\naccredited party agents from performing their statutory role, then the
\nbasis for a free and fair election is gone. The only reason why the
\nmilitary will not allow party agents to do their work is to aid those
\nwho are not authorized to vote to do so. This is the only way 500,000
\nunclaimed PVCs and others illegally obtained can be used to rig the
\nelections.<\/p>\n
”We are therefore calling on INEC to prevail on the security agencies
\nto allow the party agents to do their work unhindered on Saturday. We
\nalso want to remind INEC to note that soldiers, by law, have no
\nbusiness at polling booths, not to talk of the irony of the same
\nsoldiers now preventing party agents from discharging their statutory
\nroles<\/p>\n
”Even more brazen and bizarre is the information reaching us that the
\nmajority of the 500,000 PVCs and others illegally obtained may have
\nbeen given to uniformed men, both official and unofficial, who in the
\nabsence of prying eyes will cast multiple votes and rig the election
\nin favour of the PDP.<\/p>\n
”We also have very credible information that when all fails
\ndirectives might be given to the EOs to allow anyone with a Permanent
\nvoters card to cast his or her vote even when their names are not on
\nthe voters register. These are frightening and sinister scenarios
\nwhich we want INEC to take note of and prevent from happening,” the
\nparty said.<\/p>\n
It condemned the glaring partisanship of the security agencies that
\nhave been deployed to Osun for the election, against the background
\nthat the Department of State Service (DSS)today prevented the
\nsolidarity rally of the NLC in support of Gov. Aregbesola at the
\nFreedom Park Osogbo from taking place on the grounds that there is a
\ndivision within the NLC!<\/p>\n
”Also, we are uncomfortable with the tale being peddled to the rank
\nand file of the police in Osun state that the acting IGP has directed
\nthat Osun election must be won by the PDP as a condition for his
\nconfirmation.<\/p>\n
” The APC is aware of the desperation of the PDP to win Saturday’s
\nelection at all cost, even when everything, including an opinion poll
\ncarried out by a globally-acknowledged firm, RMS-TNS, points to the
\nfact that the APC candidate, Gov. Rauf Aregbesola, is the runaway
\nleader among all the candidates for the election.<\/p>\n
”Our party especially notes the circulation of the result of an
\nopinion poll purportedly carried out by USAID showing the PDP
\ncandidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, as the leading candidate.
\nThankfully, USAID has publicly dissociated itself from such poll,
\nsaying it never carried out any opinion poll on Osun State. There is
\nno clearer evidence of desperation than this.<\/p>\n
”We must however not fail to warn that Osun Election will determine
\nthe fate of democracy in Nigeria, and therefore call on all
\nstakeholders to provide a level playing field for all ” APC said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked INEC to urgently circulate to all political parties the Voters Identification Numbers (VINs) of all unclaimed Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and publicly declare…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n