The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of conniving with the Osun State Government to rig today’s gubernatorial election in the state.
The PDP said that APC governors contributed monies running into billions and used helicopters to fly the cash into the Osun State Government House on Thursday with the intention to use the funds to induce voters.
The Osun State PDP Chairman, Mr. Soji Adagunodo, disclosed this in a Friday press conference in Oshogbo.
He said, “We wish to alert the general public to the planned monetisation of the Osun State governorship election, especially the voting process, by the APC. Towards this ignoble end, several helicopters loaded with cash were flown into the Government House between the hours of 4pm and 8pm on Thursday.
“The money, which we were reliably informed about run into billions of naira, was contributed by state governors elected on the platform of the APC to enable the party to induce voters at various polling units.
“In addition, each of the 67 local government council development areas in Osun State was made to cough up N12.5m for the same purpose. The plan of the APC, as gathered from very credible sources, was to buy votes with a sum ranging from N5,000 to N10,000 each at the polling units.
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“It is quite unfortunate that a government which did not find it compelling to pay salaries and allowances of its workforce for 34 months could resort to attempting to buy the conscience of voters in this election.”
But the media aide to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Mr Sola Fasure, denied the allegation and challenged the PDP to prove their claim.
He accused the opposition party of raising a false alarm to divert attention from the rigging machinery that it (PDP) had perfected for the election.
He said, “The PDP and its candidate have been sending messages out to obtain account numbers of the people whose vote they want to buy. They are using this allegation to cover their own heinous and sinister practice of trying to induce voters.
“They are making allegations without evidence but we have evidence of them trying to induce voters. They are the ones actually sending messages and trying to induce these voters with cash. They have been obtaining bank accounts and it is all over the state. Everybody knows but they are using the press conference as a means to divert attention from them so that they can perpetrate that criminal activity of subverting the election and inducing voters.
“We are not giving out money to anybody; anyone who claims to have collected money from us should come out to the public and say it. We have the strategy of winning elections by going out to canvass for votes and they have the strategy of taking shortcut by paying to induce voters and to circumvent the electoral process. They have started inducing voters already but they will fail woefully.”