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Tony Osauzo, Benin
The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, accused Dr. Mustapha Leeky, a National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), of acting the script of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, towards subverting the will of Edo electorate in the September 19, 2020 governorship election.
Addressing journalists in Benin City, State Publicity Secretary of the party, Chris Nehikhare, alleged that Dr. Leeky, working with Oshiomhole and the candidate of the APC, Ize-Iyamu, is disrupting the process for the engagement of the various Ad-hoc staff to be used by INEC in the polls.
“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”, Nehikhare said.
According him, the Polling Officers (PO), who are supposed to be serving National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members have been changed and Oshiomhole and Ize-Iyamu are nominating people, most of whom are not youth corps members, to fill these positions to actualize their plans to rig the election.
Besides, the PDP alleged that the Supervisory Polling Officers were also being engaged by Dr. Leeky to serve the interest of the APC. “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 said. But in his reaction, Dr. Lecky denied the allegation, saying it is false.
“It is false and not true; I am not party to that. It must be in the dream of whosoever imagines it”, the INEC National Commissioner who spoke on phone said.
Also reacting, the state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Chris Azebamwan, described the allegation as a “phantom and imaginary transaction” designed by Obaseki to distract Nigerians and Edo people from the matter at hand.
“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”.
Reacting to the PDP’s allegation, Oshiomhole’s media aide, Victor Oshioke, said the former National Chairman of the APC is busy selling the Simple Agenda manifesto to the Edo people and has no time to spend reacting to frivolous, and baseless daily allegations coming from the PDP. “It is now obvious to any objective observer that PDP has nothing to tell Edo people about Godwin Obaseki’s wasted 4 years as governor. This is why they have relocated their campaign to the PDP secretariat where their Publicity Secretary reels out daily press statements of unimaginable scenarios on the coming election.”
