Governor Ademola Adeleke has raised alarm over an ongoing coordinated, illegal operation by the Osun APC to buy up voters’ voting cards and extract pin numbers from the cards to disenfranchise voters on August 15.
In a statement on Thursday morning, the governor warned against what he called illegal and anti-democratic activities that are targeted at compromising the voters registers, electronically disenfranchising voters and manipulating the outcome of August 15 polls, calling the attention of the electoral commission to the untoward development.
Citing multiple reports from across the 30 local governments and Area Office, the governor accused the Osun APC and its agents of monetarily inducing the public to part with their voters’ cards with intent to disenfranchise such voters and warned members of the public to protect and never part with their voters cards.
The state governor noted further that APC agents are extracting the pin numbers on the voters cards through offering of monetary rewards and warned that the operation is targeting local governments with huge followership of the Accord Party.
The plot is to ensure massive dislocation of registered voters from their place of registration such as from one town to the other and thereby making it impossible for such voters to vote on the day of election
In some other local governments, the APC agents insisted on the voters swearing an oath to take inducement to secure the pin numbers or a photocopy of the voters cards, charging voters not to fall for an evil plot to deny them their voting rights.
The governor who described the development as criminal practices and a breach of the provisions of the electoral act called on the electoral commission to wade into the matter as reports point to an insider collusion in the APC operations.
“I task the electoral body not to look the other way. We have reports of insider collusion which we are still investigating. Any link between the pin numbers on the voters card and manipulations of the voting process is a source of concern for us. We trust the electoral body to act.
“My dear people of Osun state, don’t sell your voters cards; your cards are your power to vote and elect your leaders on August 15 and beyond. Osun APC wants to stop you from voting. Don’t submit your cards”, the governor was quoted as saying in the statement.
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