INEC CHAIRMAN
Seriki Adinoyi
Former military administrator of Oyo and Delta States, and the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) candidate in the Saturday Plateau North Senatorial by-election, Colonel John Dungs, said he has uncovered plans by the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to use the Operation Rainbow (the state’s private security outfit) to rig the election in favour of the PDP candidate.
Appealing to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Special Task Force (STF) on Jos crisis to be vigilant and resist attempts by the PDP to use them to rig the election, Dungs said the current peace in the state is very important to citizens and government should not engage in whatever is capable of distorting the peace.
Dungs said the state government in connivance with PDP is planning to use Operation Rainbow to take ballot papers and boxes to people displaced by the recent crisis in their various refugee camps so that they could cast their votes there in the camps. But he said that is not acceptable by him since that will give room for massive rigging. He said, moreover the electorate in the camps did not all register in the same registration centre.
He also alleged that the PDP has printed ballot papers for the elections, warning that any attempt to use ballot papers outside the ones that would be provided by INEC will be vehemently resisted.
He said as a former military administrator in two states he has garnered sufficient experience to put up a credible representation at the Senate if elected.
Meanwhile, the state chapter of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) said all the opposition parties in the state have resolved on a consensus candidate in the person of Mr. Chris Giwa of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to provide a formidable opposition that will challenge the ruling PDP in the election.
Addressing the press in Jos, the state Chairman of CNPP, Alhaji Yusuf Kanam said consultations with candidates of all the opposition parties are almost completed on the matters, appealing to all supporters to rally round Giwa in the Saturday election.