The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has accused the state Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and the All Progressives Congress (APC), of substituting members of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), already trained as ad-hoc staff for Edo governorship election, with APC members.
In a statement signed by the state Publicity Secretary, Mr Chris Nehikhare, the PDP restated its position that the postponement of the governorship election earlier scheduled for last Saturday, was in line with the APC’s plan to rig the election.
The PDP said: “The postponement was well-planned to undermine the will of Edo people; we are now convinced that the phantom security advice by the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services (DSS) was orchestrated by Governor Oshiomhole and some cabal within the APC in the face of imminent defeat in the election.
“For instance, we all know that many members of the NYSC were trained by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as ad hoc staff for the election; and, going by the ‘NYSC Action Plan, September 2016,’ the trained NYSC members are to finish their clearance, as part of their final disengagement process that will end on September 26.
“We have just been told by insiders within the APC that Governor Oshiomhole and his party had compiled a list of their party’s members that they will secretly use to replace the outgoing trained NYSC members.’’
The PDP said that one of the reasons the APC also asked INEC to fix the rescheduled election for Wednesday, September 28, an official working day, was to deny many electorates outside the state, who planned to come to the state for the election, from doing so.
According to the PDP, “Part of APC strategy is also to unleash all kinds of propaganda against our candidate in the next two weeks in order to complement their devious plans to manipulate the election.
“PDP, therefore, calls on President Muhammadu Buhari, who had benefited from the process of a free and fair election, to caution Governor Oshiomhole and other federal institutions involved in the election not to plunge Edo into avoidable security crisis,” he said.
Reacting, Edo APC through its Publicity Secretary, Mr Godwin Erhahon, said, “The PDP is talking out of frustration. The APC, having succeeded where the PDP failed, doesn’t have any need for rigging or manipulation.
“We will emerge victorious in an election that will be conducted in communities where the APC is seen as a Messiah.”
Meanwhile, the candidate of the KOWA Party in the forthcoming Edo State governorship poll, Thompson Osadolor, has withdrawn from the race.
Osadolor anchored his reason to withdraw from the race on the postponement of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
But the KOWA candidate, who faulted the postponement, lamented that the failure of the commission to hold the election on September 10 “destabilised” his campaign.
He said, “I am not satisfied with the postponement of the election. They (INEC) knew that we would win the election, that was why they postponed it.
“Having done that, they have destabilised us. That is one of the reasons we withdrew.”
According to him, the PDP was a better alternative because there were similarities in the manifestoes of both parties.
“Because of the postponement of the election, I met with my campaign team and we decided to harness our campaign with that of the PDP.
“Our manifesto and the PDP’s are very similar and I think we will be able to work together. We reached an agreement with the PDP that we are going to run an inclusive government.
“PDP did not make any financial commitment to us. We have no financial agreement”, he stated.