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Tag: rig

  • APGA candidate alleges plot to rig poll

    APGA candidate alleges plot to rig poll

    The Ebonyi State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Senator Anthony Agbo, yesterday alleged that a major party was plotting to rig the election.

    He said no amount of conspiracy and intimidation would change the divine plan for the state.

    Agbo, addressing reporters at his country home, Ngbo, in Ohaukwu Local Government, condemned the omission of his name from the list of governorship candidates released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    He said there was a malicious rumour by the top echelon of a party that he would not run for the governorship poll.

    His words: “There is plot to rig the election. No amount of conspiracy and intimidation will change the divine purpose. They also spread rumour that I would not vie for the election, as my name was missing from the initial list of governorship candidates sent to the INEC office in Abakaliki.”

    Agbo said he resisted the move to remove his name from INEC’s list, which led to it being published later.

    “Besides removing my file from INEC, these agents of destabilisation attacked and destroyed our party’s office in Mgbo.

    “They burnt documents at our party’s office and destroyed items, such as furniture and posters.”

    He warned those involved to desist, as he knew their identities.

    Agbo noted: “It is clear that the forces of good and evil are competing for the soul of Ebonyi, but I assure the indigenes that no amount of conspiracy and intimidation will change the divine plan for the state.”

    He urged the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to tighten loose ends and ensure the conduct of credible elections, as the top echelon of a particular party boasted that it would influence INEC, the police and  military.

    According to him, the APGA state chairman was in Abuja following the attack on the party.

    “We will officially report the matter to the police when he returns.

    “Those, whose houses were attacked, have reported to the police. I assure the people that we will not be intimidated. We will go about our campaign according to the law.”

    The governorship candidate enjoined the people to resist intimidation and financial inducement and vote for him and other APGA candidates, arguing that no other governorship candidates had the kind of positive records and vision he had for Ebonyi State.

  • APC alleges plans to rig in 10 councils

    APC alleges plans to rig in 10 councils

    •Don’t recruit OYES cadets, PDP urges INEC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have accused each other of plans to rig Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State.

    APC alleged that the PDP planned to rig the election in 10 local government areas and influence the selection of “a pliable person” as the returning officer.

    In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC said President Goodluck Jonathan’s utterances showed that “he wants victory for his party at all cost”, adding that this would shape security agencies’ perception of the election as a do-or-die affair.

    The party said: “Nigerians from all walks of life, desirous of a free and fair election on Saturday, are reaching out to us with useful information on the plan by the desperate PDP to rig the forthcoming election, and we are taking the information seriously.

    “For example, we learnt that the PDP has identified Ife Central, Ife East, Ife North, Ife South, Olurunda, Iwo, Ifelodun, Osogbo, Odo Otin and Aiyedade as places where it plans to perpetrate massive rigging. Two results have allegedly been written ahead of the election and three vice chancellors, one from the Northcentral and two from the Southwest, have been pencilled down to serve as returning officer. The incentive for the returning officer who can announce the doctored results is N1 billion.”

    APC said with the massive deployment of security agents in Osun to “harass and intimidate the opposition, the huge amounts of cash being moved into the state via Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and the electoral malfeasance specialist-ministers, who have landed in Osun, it is clear that the PDP is working hard to ensure that the election is anything but free, fair and credible”.

    It urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to appoint a honest returning officer and pay special attention to the 10 local governments allegedly targeted by the PDP.

    APC said: “No one will accept the result of an election in which the returning officer is compromised with filthy lucre. This is why we are calling on INEC to ensure that only a person of integrity serves in that important post.”

    It said its agents would not sign false election results and urged the international community to pay attention to the allegations.

    APC said: “The biggest danger to Saturday’s election is the unbridled desperation of the PDP to win at all cost. This explains why the party’s candidate, Mr. Iyiola Omisore, has lied so shamelessly about a purported USAID survey that puts him ahead of Governor Rauf Aregbesola. But for USAID, which quickly put a lie to the peddled story, Omisore would have continued to use it as a campaign tool.”

    In another statement, Osun APC Publicity Director Kunle Oyatomi alleged that the PDP had got access to INEC’s database and was replacing information about registered voters with those of mercenaries from Lagos, Oyo and Ondo states.

    Oyatomi said: “According to our field intelligence report, permanent voter cards produced after accessing INEC’s database are being distributed to young men and women contracted from the neighbouring states.

    “Information reaching us is that 62 young men and women equipped with laptops have been camped in two main hotels on Ibadan Road in Ile-Ife to effect the stealing of the data and alteration of personal information of registered voters for the purpose of producing fake electoral materials that the PDP intends to use for its rigging purpose.

    “Work on this project is taking place at a radio station believed to be owned by a PDP chieftain. Our source confirmed that the car, which brought the materials on which the men and women are working, was a black Land Cruiser with Abuja number plate.

    “Computer experts from some universities in the Southwest have said that if INEC’s database was hacked into, a high number of registered voters, who foolishly allowed the PDP to collect the VIN number of their voter cards, would not be able to vote on August 9 because their data and photographs would have been altered.

    “Reliable reports from field intelligence and insider sources of the PDP showed that the VIN numbers of the voter cards produced fraudulently will be listed, polling unit by polling unit, and handed over to youth corps members serving as electoral officials to secretly tick as having been accredited to vote.

    “It is during accreditation that the original voter will discover that his/her data and photograph had vanished from the computer records and will be disqualified from voting. However, computer experts said that it is impossible to break into INEC’s database without insider collaboration.

    “The experts said only INEC’s database administrator can, during editing, effect such comprehensive alteration.”

    The PDP has warned INEC against recruiting members of the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) as electoral officials.

    In a statement, the party’s Media Director, Prince Diran Odeyemi, said: “The PDP has been informed that some APC chieftains have infiltrated INEC and fraudulently listed OYES cadets for recruitment for election duties. Many APC chieftains were alleged to be involved in this desperate move to avert defeat and commit fraud through the OYES cadets that are being recruited in place of Youth Corps members for the poll.

    “What they have been doing is to substitute the NYSC members with OYES cadets and get uniforms of corps members for them.”

    Urging OYES members not to allow themselves to be used for fraudulent acts, PDP said: “Any OYES cadet caught by security operatives will face the consequences alone because those behind the illegal move will go underground immediately they are caught.

    “These cadets are citizens of Osun and we will not like any calamity to befall them. They should learn from what happened to members of the criminal group called “State Boys”, who were caught in Ilesa and ferried to Abuja by security personnel.”

    PDP National Publicity Secretary Chief Olisa Metuh has said Omisore “is already coasting to victory”.

    In a statement yesterday, Metuh described Omisore’s “massive acceptance by the voting population, widespread political structure, and a track-record of abiding affinity and loyalty to Osun people” as trump cards.

    He said: “The fact that the PDP allowed a free and fair primary, which threw up the people’s choice as its candidate, also gave it an early mileage ahead of the APC as was the case in Ekiti State.”

    Metuh described Omisore as “a popular and hard working candidate with extensive political structure”.

  • APC, PDP in row over ‘plot’ to rig, incite residents

    APC, PDP in row over ‘plot’ to rig, incite residents

    Who is plotting to rig the August 9 election?

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) says it has uncovered another plot by the Peoples Democratic Congress (PDP) to rig the poll.

    APC’s Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, made the claim yesterday in a statement.

    But the PDP insisted that it had no such plans.

    The APC alleged that the PDP had penetrated the ranks of the youth corps members to be used as electoral officers by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    It claimed that 70 of the corps members had been compromised to look the other way when the PDP agents use other people’s voter cards.

    “It should not be forgotten that our party, the APC, had brought to public knowledge, the criminal intention of the PDP to buy up voter cards  for rigging purposes during the election on August 9.

    “According to credible information reaching the APC, 96 of the youth corps members were invited to a closed-door meeting with the PDP officials last week, but only 74 attended. During the meeting, the corps members were told to disregard the difference in facial appearance between the voter and the picture on the computer record and allow the mercenary voter to cast his or her vote.

    “Sensing that this could be dangerously problematic, one of the corps members allegedly asked: ‘Suppose party agents discovered and raised alarm?’ The PDP officials were reported to have replied; ‘don’t worry about that. The security people will deal decisively with any troublesome agent,’” the APC said.

    It added that after the meeting, the PDP distributed N20,000 each to the corps members and promised N30,000 more when the next meeting holds. “We learnt that the next meeting will hold in few days in Ile Ife,” the statement claimed.

    The reason why the PDP decided to embark on the method, according to the APC, was because the INEC in Abuja told the opposition party that snatching ballot boxes and stuffing them with already thumb-printed ballot-papers would not be permitted.

    The APC said the INEC had insisted that the PDP should look for the voters and make them vote.

    “With this secret let out of the bag, youth corps members acting as electoral officers will now come under closer scrutiny during the election and party agents and observers will be further armed with this information to prevent the PDP’s fraud at the polls,” the party said.

    The state government has also alerted the residents to  plans  by “some unscrupulous people” to mark some buildings for demolition in major cities.

    The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Sunday Akere, in a statement yesterday, said their intention was to incite the populace against the government.

    He advised residents to question anyone that inscribes any mark of demolition on their buildings and report such person to the police for proper action.

    Akere also denied claims by members of the opposition party, particularly the PDP, that the state government has concluded plans to introduce a new tax regime if re-elected into office.

    He said the government is  not in any way thinking of introducing any tax regime or intend to increase its tax levy as claimed by the PDP.

    The spokesperson for the PDP and the Omisore Campaign Organisation, Prince Diran Odeyemi, said: “We are tired of their unfounded allegations. It is one allegation for each day. Their plan was to use the allegations to distract us from doing serious and issue-based campaign.”

    Odeyemi advised the APC to report any criminal finding to the security agents, rather than taking serious issues meant to be investigated and prosecuted in the court of law to the media.

    “It is the constitutional role of the police to investigate and prosecute accordingly any criminal issues that the APC might have. Reporting it on the pages of the newspapers amounts to propaganda,” he said.

  • APC alleges INEC, PDP plot to rig

    APC alleges INEC, PDP plot to rig

    It’s false, says REC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) alleged yesterday that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was executing a “sinister plan by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to manipulate the electoral process ahead of the August 9 governorship election.”

    In a statement by its Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, a lawyer, APC alleged that a plot had been made to rig the August 9 poll.

    “Thousands of APC supporters in the 30 local governments are being disenfranchised as INEC is preventing them from obtaining their permanent voter cards (PVCs) without which they will not be allowed to vote,” the party alleged.

    APC alleged that INEC had introduced a “wicked formula of dispensing the PVCs by asking voters with temporary cards what party they belong to before the permanent voter cards are given.”

    “In the process, those who have identified themselves as APC supporters have been told that their PVCs are not ready and INEC could not tell these prospective voters when they would be ready. This is part of what the PDP wants and this why it has removed the former Osun Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Rufus Akeju.

    “Information from the PDP leadership has also shown INEC’s alleged involvement in a massive ballot stuffing plan that will be secured by security forces and presented as votes of designated polling booths. The rigging plan of the PDP in Osun, therefore, is a coordinated exercise between the party and corrupt INEC officials under the protection of the federal security forces.

    “Besides, the APC is reliably informed that the ink, which INEC will use in the majority of the local governments, will be similar to the one used in Ekiti State that fades off within hours of voting.

    “The APC is therefore warning that INEC’s integrity as a fair umpire may have been compromised, and it is impossible to believe that these manipulative activities of the electoral process are being done without Prof. Attahiru Jega’s knowledge.”

    The REC, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje, denied the allegation, saying it was false.

    He said he went round the councils and did not see where eligible voters were denied the right to collect Permanent Voter Cards.

    Agbaje warned against “unnecessary heating up of the electoral process through baseless allegations.”

    He advised reporters to investigate allegations rather than publishing whatever politicians told them.

  • Plot by INEC to rig for APGA uncovered

    A plot by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deceive Nigerians and create a façade to enable it rig the election on behalf of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has been uncovered.

    A source said INEC as part of efforts to manipulate the results of the November 16 poll, handed over to the parties, the register used in the 2011 election without the supplementary list of new and qualified voters, which it compiled in August.

    A source close to the electoral body said: “It is clear that what INEC claims to be the authentic and updated voter register is, indeed, faulty and unfit for use in the poll, since in the first place, it does not contain the names of the new and qualified voters compiled in August.”

    According to the source, “if INEC goes ahead to use the purported voter register it handed over to the political parties in Awka on October 16, it would not only make the November 16 election a fraud in that it would have been conducted on the basis of an old and deficient voter register, but chances are that electoral violence may manifest in Anambra State to a level where the political disturbances of 2011 in some northern states would not be comparable.”

    Feelers in Anambra State show that some aggrieved parties have vowed not to allow the November 16 election take place, while others have decided to sue INEC if it failed to use the updated voter register including the names and particulars of those who participated in the supplementary voter registration in August.

    A lawyer, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said INEC’s action smacked of an attempt to rig the election, judging from the way the electoral body decided to hand over to parties, an incomplete and an unacceptable voter register.

    He added: “INEC, in that hurried move, may have tacitly expected the political parties to do its job — the display of the voter register for objections and/or corrections of misplaced names and particulars.”

    At press time, the voter register, which must contain the names and particulars of those who registered in August, had not been displayed.

    According to sections 19 and 20 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) say: “Subject to the provisions of Section 16(1) of this Act, the commission shall, by notice, appoint a period of not less than five days and not exceeding 14 days, during which a copy of the voter register for each local government, area council or ward shall be displayed for public scrutiny and during which any objection or complaint in relation to the names omitted or included in the voter register or in relation to any necessary correction, shall be raised or filed.

    “The supplementary voter list shall be integrated with the voter register and published not later than 30 days before a general election.”

    Resident Electoral Commissioner Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukogu referred our reporter to INEC’s spokesman in Anambra State, who said the issues raised could not be addressed on the phone.

    Attempts to reach Kayode Idowu, the chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, proved abortive. The text messages sent to them were not responded to.

  • Kuku accuses Mimiko of planning to rig poll

    Kuku accuses Mimiko of planning to rig poll

    The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, yesterday decried the desperation of Governor Olusegun Mimiko to win the October 20 election.

    He said in a statement: “The realisation of an impending defeat at the polls has prompted a naked dance in the full glare of the public by Dr. Mimiko and his fast dwindling band of Labour Party (LP) apologists and supporters.”

    Mimiko, through his campaign organisation, issued a statement, urging President Goodluck Jonathan to call Kuku to order over his alleged activities in the riverine communities of Ondo State.

    He alleged that the Presidential Adviser was attempting to use his position as the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme to “subvert the October 20 election in favour of his (Kuku’s) Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”

    But Kuku said: “It is pertinent to respond to this unwarranted attack from the governor, if only to set the record straight and for the nation to be aware of his brand of deceitful politics in the state in the last four years.

    “On the Presidential Amnesty, let me remind Mimiko as he feigns ignorance that the programme and office have beneficiaries and officials from Ondo State with different political affiliations, be it LP,PDP and ACN or persons with no political affiliation.

    “Nobody involved in the amnesty programme has been discriminated against on account of his or her political party preference.

    “It is therefore absurd to accuse me as the Presidential Amnesty Programme Chairman of partisanship, considering how sensitive the amnesty programme is to the economic well-being of the nation.

    “In truth, it is this sensitivity to politics and the ability to manage men and the resources at my disposal that have accounted for the widely-acclaimed successful implementation of Nigeria’s home-grown Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme.

    “It is laughable for Mimiko to attempt to splash mud on and unduly drag the amnesty programme into Ondo politics ahead of the governorship election.

    “It is not a secret that I’m one of the PDP leaders from the state in government at the federal level. Before now, I had been an official of my council, Ese-Odo Local Government and later a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly, where I represented my constituency for one term between 2003 and 2007.

    “Today, by God’s grace, I’m an Ijaw leader from Arogbo community. But I also hail from a unit, a ward, a federal constituency and a senatorial district that have felt the impact of a PDP-led government in the state.

    “The PDP-led government under Dr. Olusegun Agagu had a track record of performance compared to the Mimiko administration. I challenge Mimiko to point to any project he has executed in Arogbo and its neighbouring communities. Let him tell the world.

    “In the riverine communities between Ese-Odo and Ilaje councils, the state government projects completed were those executed by the Agagu administration. Mimiko has not only abandoned the projects he inherited from Agagu, but has gone ahead to abandon the ones he initiated in both local government areas.

    “The fact of the matter is that Ondo State gets its largest revenue from the oil resources in these two local governments. So what have the councils and indigenes done to Mimiko to warrant this crass neglect?

    “Why has his administration decided to institutionalise underdevelopment in these riverine communities? Instead of the governor to face these issues, he is busy pursuing shadows and trying to distract attention from his woeful performance.

    “ Mimiko is my friend. But I cannot sacrifice the development of my area and the well-being of my people on the altar of friendship. My position on the October 20 governorship election is beyond friendship.

    “For the PDP in Ondo State, me and the people of my area, Mimiko has performed woefully and we cannot afford another four years of his mis-governance and litany of unfulfilled promises. Performance should determine who wins the election and not Mimiko’s recourse to blackmail.”

    Kuku said Mimiko is pointing accusing fingers elsewhere when it is a fact that the real person threatening the peace in the Ondo coastal communities is himself.

    “How else can one explain the commencement of his politically-motivated security contract (which operates like the infamous and outlawed Famou Tangbe in Bayelsa State) in the riverine areas just a few months to the election? The governor doles out N70 million monthly to his hired goons in the two local governments in the guise of ensuring security in the coastal communities.

    “We have since found out that the money is being deployed to arm and compromise some of the youths that have embraced the Federal Government amnesty and he is planning to use them to rig the October 20 election.

    “Some of these youths have been engaged in areas with naval and marine police presence and have been patrolling the rivers and creeks, causing tension.

    “The people of these areas have vowed to resist them on the election day if they attempt to rig or steal their votes.

    “It is not out of place to alert President Jonathan and Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar to the nefarious activities of this Mimiko-hired security outfit and to call for its disbandment if the October 20 poll is to be skirmish-free. Let me restate that Mimiko plans to use this so-called security outfit to rig the election.

    “The PDP in Ondo State is convinced that given Mimiko’s miserable scorecard in the last four years, the electorate are determined to send him packing from the Government House on October 20.”

    The presidential aide urged the security agencies to ensure that the will of the people is not subverted by those who do not mean well for the state.

  • ‘PDP plans to rig Plateau National Assembly poll’

    As the electorate in Plateau North Senatorial District prepares for tomorrow’s National Assembly by-election to replace the late Senator Gyang Dantong, the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) candidate, Col. David Dungs (rtd.), has alleged that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has perfected plans to rig the election.

    Addressing reporters in Jos, the state capital, Dungs said: “I have found out from the grapevine that the ruling party, in connivance with the state government, has lined up government vehicles to be used for rigging.

    “Already, the PDP has printed ballot papers from outside the state with which they will stuff ballot boxes. Voters are being mobilised from the southern and central zones to vote for PDP’s candidate.

    “I want to urge the people of the zone to be vigilant and resist any form of rigging. I also want to caution security agencies to resist being used for rigging because corruption in government starts from election rigging.”

    But the government denied the allegation.

    Through its Commissioner for Information, Yiljap Abraham, the government warned the voters against rigging.

    The government spoke in Jos on Wednesday at a meeting with political parties.

    Abraham denied the alleged plan to rig the election.