The All Progressives Congress (APC) has cried out, saying that no fewer than 500,000 mercenaries have been engaged by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to ensure the victory of Senator Iyiola Omisore in the Osun State governorship election. Osun is currently being ruled by APC’s Rauf Aregbesola.

The party in a statement issued yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, claimed that about half a million Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs), which were either unclaimed, not handed over to their authentic owners, or were obtained fraudulently, have been cloned by unscrupulous persons ahead of the election, with the sole purpose of rigging.

Giving a vivid picture of how the vote rigging would be carried out, the APC alleged thus: “These cloned cards, mostly in the hands of persons from states other than Osun, are to be used along with the authentic PVCs issued to the electorate in Osun State during the election.”

APC said based on the dubious plan, unscrupulous security agents – both official and unofficial – will be at hand to brutalise, arrest and detain any agent or voter who may want to challenge this illegality.

APC called on INEC, “if it is not part of this diabolical plan,” to ensure that only the voters’ registers used to issue out the PVCs to voters up till August 4 will be used to conduct the election.

It stated further: “We also demand that copies of these registers, which are already in possession of the local council electoral officers, be made available to all political parties at least 72 hours before the election. Anything short of using the registers that contained the names of the authentic voters will not be acceptable.”

The party urged the people of the state in general and APC members in particular to be very vigilant ahead, during and after voting on Saturday, against the background of the desperation to win at all costs by the PDP candidate.

“Their desperation,” according to APC, “knows no bounds; hence they will do anything, no matter how illegal, to thwart the will of the people. But no power is bigger than people’s power, and no inducement is worth anyone’s conscience. The votes of the people of the state must not only be counted, but must count on Saturday.”

•Adapted from a Guardian report. Photo shows INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.

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