INEC planning to reduce our votes – APC

The All Progressives Congress has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of planning to supply insufficient electoral materials to towns and villages where the ruling party is very popular. The Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of the APC in Osun State, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, who said this in a statement, in Osogbo, on Monday, said the INEC was making the alleged plan to disenfranchise thousands of APC members from voting for Governor Rauf Aregebsola. He stated that INEC, which he claimed was colluding with the Peoples Democratic Party, would supply more than enough materials to the strongholds of the PDP. According to him, the electoral body will disenfranchise APC supporters in order to give the PDP governorship candidate an undue advantage in the election. He said, “The All Progressives Congress in Osun has uncovered a plan by the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission to under-supply APC strongholds with electoral materials. “Insufficient materials will be sent to Ilesa, Osogbo, Ede, Ila, Iwo, Ikirun, Aiyedire LG, Ife North, including Modakeke as well as Egbedore, and Olorunda LGs. “The idea is to significantly reduce the number of votes of the APC and create an opportunity for the PDP to boost its numerical edge. “Already, information at the APC’s disposal suggests that INEC’s assurances for a free and fair election, is to create an a sense of false security among the APC supporters to keep their guard down, while a massive rigging plan is being executed behind the scene. “Part of the plan which has been ongoing in the past weeks is the scheme to prevent APC supporters from receiving their permanent voter cards. “Already, the rumour is rife that the PDP and INEC plan a late arrival of materials to critical polling units with the intention of creating chaos and possibly prevent voting from taking place.” The ruling party said that there would be no genuine excuse for late arrival of election materials to any polling units in Osun State while urging the electoral body to supply enough materials to all the 3,010 polling units in the state. The ruling party also alleged that the PDP had started going from house to house giving rice to the people and promising to pay N5,000 to any voter who voted the party on August 9. The APC said the money was blood money and should be rejected in order not to be trapped by the schemes of the opposition party. He added, “To actualise this undemocratic plot, the sum of N2 billion is alleged to have been given by the Presidency to one of the notorious PDP serving ministers to dispense. “What the PDP is distributing is blood money. After you have taken it, you have been paid off to continue in poverty and misery. “Nobody who wants to serve the people will bribe them with money first. That person must convince the people first of what he plans to do and what benefit the people will get from the plan. “People should not sell their birthright for the PDP’s N5,000. That party will enslave you and ruin your children’s future. “What Aregbesola is doing in Osun and for its citizens guarantees the present and secures the future. The PDP is only coming to steal Osun’s wealth, not to build it.” The Publicity Secretary of the PDP in the state, Mr. Bola Ajao, when contacted said he would send his responses to the allegations in a statement but he never did as of the time of filing this report.