The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has again alerted the international community, accredited election monitors and the general public about a secret plot by Governor Adams Oshiomhole and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to substitute members of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), trained for Edo governorship election, with their party members.
In a press statement signed by the Publicity Secretary, Mr Chris Nehikhare, the PDP restated its position that the postponement of the Edo State governorship election earlier scheduled for Saturday, September 10, was in line with the governor and the APC’s devious plan, point out that it had nothing to do with insecurity in the state.
According to the PDP, ‘’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 Security (DSS) was orchestrated by Governor Adams 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 out-going 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 electorate outside the state, who planned to come to Edo State for the election, from doing so.
It said hundreds of the electorate outside the state had arrived Edo State before the election was postponed with many of them feeling disappointed about the action of the APC in connivance with INEC/security agencies.
The PDP added, ‘’We want to, once again, put the international community, accredited election monitors and the general public on notice over the devious plan by the APC. It will surely undermine our democracy and instigate crisis that might be very difficult to manage if Oshiomhole and his gang are allowed to have their way.
‘’It is now certain that the Edo State governorship election earlier scheduled for September 10 was put off by Adams Oshiomhole and a cabal within the APC to enable them have more time to manipulate the election.
‘’As part of their strategy, they plan 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 called 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 State into avoidable security crisis just to satisfy the “bragging ambitions” of the APC, and its candidate, Godwin Obaseki.
The party also called on the people of Edo State, especially its teeming members and supporters, to rest assured that whenever the governorship election holds, their votes shall count and would be protected, advising them to remain calm and continue to be law-abiding in spite of the deliberate attempt to provoke them.
