The Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu Campaign Organisation has advised those who are plotting and boasting that they would use the security agencies and some agents of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig the Edo State governorship election slated for September 10 to rethink as PDP members across the wards in the state are ever prepared and ready to defend their votes by ‘’any means necessary.’’
The campaign organisation stated this on Sunday while responding to a meeting held by the APC leaders with their unit heads on Friday at former Leventis House, Sokponba Road, Benin City, allegedly instructing the unit heads to disrupt any polling unit where the PDP candidate wins during voting and counting of ballots papers.
According to the statement, “We have been informed by an insider at the meeting that APC leaders further warned their members that the election results must not be allowed to be declared by INEC presiding officers should PDP win in any unit in the state.
‘’The insider further informed us that APC had finally given up any hope of winning the election, and they are now planning crude measures to rig the election, including making their members as INEC ad-hoc staff members. And if this is what they are planning, then they have failed because our members have been instructed to defend their votes by all means necessary.’’
The PDP campaign organisation further claimed that the APC leaders, purportedly on Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s instruction, had also deployed huge sums of money to their collaborators in the state in a bid to prevail on them to help in their evil plot.
It further alleged that the PVCs of the electorate in various wards across the state are being collected by APC’s leaders daily and in some cases the serial numbers copied out for cloning.
The Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu organisation reiterated its call on President Muhammadu Buhari, the international community, non-governmental organisations and other well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on INEC and security agencies to avoid any act that is capable of causing violence and plunging the state into unmanageable crisis.
‘’Election is not a do or die affair; we must allow the will of the Edo people to prevail in the election; and those who want to test the strength and will of our supporters should think twice because the negative consequences will be very huge’’, the organisation added.
Further details later