The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused a National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Dr. Mustapha Leeky, of colluding with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the September 19 gubernatorial polls in the state.
State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chris Nehikhare, disclosed this while addressing the media on Friday in Benin City.
He said Leeky was aiding the APC to subvert the process for the engagement of the various ad-hoc staff to be used by INEC in the polls, especially the Polling Officers (POs), Supervisory Polling Officers (SPOs) and Collation Officers (COs).
Nehikhare said, “The time-honoured tradition which mandates that all political parties involved in the electioneering process submit names of persons to be used as Ad-hoc staff is being abused by Dr. Leeky and his collaborators in the APC.
“Dr. Leeky, it has been gathered, has skewed the process to ensure it favours one party, whereby the final list released for training of the adhoc staff has a ratio of 10:1, between the APC and all other parties.”
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He alleged that instead of sticking to the usual practice of engaging National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members as POs, Leeky was working with the APC candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and former APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to nominate their cronies, most of whom are not youth corps members, in a desperate bid to rig the polls.
Nehikhare further alleged that the nomination of SPOs was being done in a similar manner.
“For the Collation Officers (CO), Dr. Leeky has been influencing the engagement of persons, with personal ties with Oshiomhole and Ize-Iyamu, to rig the election in favour of the APC during the polls and undermine the electoral process.
“Dr. Leeky, we have gathered, is working within the INEC to get its officials to cheat the system. It is unfortunate that the APC has lost the hope of getting elected through the ballot and are working with Dr. Leeky and others in the INEC to subvert the will of the people.
“While we have confidence in the INEC as an institution, we are calling on them to rein in Dr. Leeky and his likes, in order to have an election that would uphold the will of the people and one that they can be proud of.
“We hereby call on the INEC leadership to review the process of selecting these officials and request that Dr. Leeky excuse himself from the process as his activities have been revealed to be threatening the integrity of the process, which will taint the outcome of the election,” the PDP spokesman stated.
Reacting, Leeky described the allegations as false.
He said they were a figment of the imagination of those peddling the falsehoods.
Similarly, the APC said that the PDP came up with the trumped-up allegations to distract Edo people.
“This is a phantom and imaginary transaction. I can tell you authoritatively that the APC has not and cannot delve into the affairs of a statutory body recognised by the electoral law to conduct elections in this country.
“This is another ploy by the PDP and Governor Obaseki to distract Nigerians and Edo people from the matter at hand.
“Obaseki is the outgoing governor, he should be preparing his handover notes instead of misleading the people because he is aware of his obvious imminent defeat so there is no truth in this frivolous allegation,” State Publicity Secretary of APC, Chris Azebamwan told Saturday Sun.