Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
Ahead of Saturday’s supplementary election in parts of Edo State, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have engaged in war of words with allegations and counter-allegations of plots to manipulate the process.
The APC House of Assembly candidate for Ovia South West constituency, Sunday Aghedo raised the alarm alleging that the two Electoral Officers (EOs) deployed to conduct the supplementary election for the area have been compromised by the state government with huge sums of money running into tens of millions.
Aghedo, who raised the alarm in a press statement yesterday , said Obaseki has shown his desperation to ensure that his party wins the constituency by every means possible.
According to him, “We have cried out severally on the unwholesome activities of the Governor to ensure that the will of the people is subverted and now he has come again by giving each of the EO N5 million to deliver the PDP candidate who presently occupies distance second position after the March 18 poll.
“Just on Wednesday, the same Governor deployed a security team to Nikhorogha with the sole aim of keeping our strong supporters out of circulation on Saturday.”
However, in a counter statement, the state chairman of PDP, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, accused the APC of planning to unleash mayhem during Saturday’s run-offs in the state and wants security agencies to be at alert.
He said: “Reports across the state suggest that the APC is gathering yet another set of evil to unleash mayhem come April 15th 2023, which has been slated for the supplementary elections in the remaining three seats at the State House of Assembly, and one House of Representatives seat, which were previously declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“Their desperation to win more seats at the State House of Assembly have been observed and witnessed by some of their party faithful who have revealed their orchestrated plans to deploy thugs to perpetrate violence and intimidate voters in the State.
“In a twist of irony, they have also decided to promote all manner of falsehood against the PDP and Governor Godwin Obaseki, like we have read on the social media lately; a disinformation device of a thief being the first to call the true owner a thief in order to mislead the judge.”
Aziegbemi further alleged that the APC plans to import thugs from some states in the South-West to cause a crisis and disrupt the elections.
