Osun 2018: Aregbesola Planning to Manipulate Voters Registration Process – PDP

• PDP is a Lazy Opposition, Making Frivolous Allegation – Aregbesola’s Aide

By Abdulrofiu Agboola

Osun state chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has raised alarm over an alleged plot by Governor Rauf Aregbesola to manipulate the voter’s registration process  of the state ahead of the 2018 governorship election.

According to PDP, Aregbesola wants to manipulate the continuous registration program of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by using pictures and biometric data of secondary school students and some non residents of the state to create phoney voting units.

But a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a former Senior Special Assistant to Aregbesola on Communication and Strategy, Mr Adelani Baderinwa dismissed the allegation, describing it as frivolous and ‘fallacious statement of a lazy opposition’.

Baderinwa in a telephone interview with CityMirrorNews said INEC is in charge of the registration process which no one knows when it will start, and that the distribution of the materials and centres to use for the exercised would be announced and supervised by all the political parties and security agencies in the state.

Chairman of the PDP, Hon Soji Adagunodo in a press statement issued today in Osogbo claimed that sources in the Aregbesola’s administration divulged the information on the alleged plot to the party.

Adagunodo stated that the sources revealed that governor has perfected plans to compromise some INEC officials in the state to carry out the secret registration of hundreds of thousands of non eligible voters in order to implement its rigging plans in favour of the All Progressive Congress in the next year governorship elections.

Part of the plans, according to Adagunodo, is to allocate fewer and/ or non functional registration machines to some local governments in order to disenfranchise voters while using more machines for the secret registration exercise in the Government House and other non approved centres.

The PDP chairman alleged that APC used similar methods with the aid of the former INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Rufus Akeju in the build up to the 2014 governorship elections.

Adagunodo said the PDP would resist all rigging plans with every energy at its disposal and would combat the perpetrators of electoral fraud with lawful force.

He charged the leadership of INEC at the national level to beam its searchlight on Osun state ahead of the voters’ registration exercise and other preparatory steps ahead of the 2018 governorship election in order to avoid unnecessary tension in the state.

The PDP chairman called on Aregbesola and other principal actors in the alleged plan of manipulating the voters register to shelve such plans in the interest of peace and sustenance of democratic harmony in the state.

Adagunodo also urged the Police, State Security Service (SSS) and other security agencies to be more proactive and impartial in preventing the manipulation allegation, saying that such move could truncate a peaceful transition of power in the state if not prevented.

“The PDP urges all INEC and ad hoc staff to adhere to their oath of duties and resist any plans by the APC to use them for the planned manipulation of the voters registration exercise in any part of the state”, Adagunodo submitted.

Reacting to the allegation, Baderinwa said the PDP was only reminding members of the public on how its government at the federal and state leveled used power with impunity to deny Nigerians their right to vote by either sending thugs to disrupt registration process or sponsoring ineligible voters to register.

According to Baderinwa, Osun PDP is a good example of lazy opposition that cannot think straight and come out with credible plans and strategies to first of all settle its internal crisis and rebrand the party for the people to have better taste of opposition.

Baderinwa said the PDP’s allegation is a failed attempt to blackmail Aregbesola and the APC, saying that the people of the state are now wiser and enlightened than a cheap and baseless allegation.

The APC chieftain said Osun people are looking forward to a formidable opposition and not the factionalised PDP which has two different leaderships thereby confusion members of the public.