The gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos, Jimi Agbaje, has revealed how Saturday’s presidential and national assembly elections were allegedly manipulated in the state.
Agbaje spoke during a press conference at his campaign office located on Ikorodu Road, Lagos, just before the results were announced in the state.
He accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies of colluding with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to flout electoral laws and rig the election.
The PDP gubernatorial candidate said, “The problems started from the polling units. The guidelines were very clear, that after election and counting of votes, election results are supposed to be pasted on the wall at the polling unit. We have no reports that election results were pasted anywhere in Lagos State. That was the beginning of the problem.
“At the collation centres, we had a lot of intimidation of our agents. The ruling party had a multiplicity of party agents representing it. We had a situation where officails of the Lagos State government showed up and were represented in their numbers against the lone voices of our agents. We had a situation where our collation agents were arrested, leaving us unrepresented at the collation stage. That again is not acceptable to us.
“We go back to the election day, where in a lot of cases, we had a situation where the card readers did not function, including my own voting unit. It created a situation where the electoral agents were unable to verify the identity of voters vis-a-vis the PVCs presented.
“Now we are calling on security agents to bring to book those who caused the mayhem in Okota, Coker Aguda and several other places in Lagos State. And that is very important. If we are going to talk about democracy, then we have to practise the culture. It means that everybody will play his part. Voters will come and vote and we have assured them that their votes count.
“Where we disenfranchise many voters then we are just playing lip service to our democracy. We have places where not less than 37 polling units in one local government have their votes cancelled and stolen. And this was done very openly; it is on camera.”
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