OSUN RERUN: COALITION GROUP ACUSSES INEC OF DISTRIBUTING PVCs TO GOVT. OFFICIALS
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By Joseph Omoniyi
The Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, on Monday has alleged that INEC was releasing to officials of the Osun State government, unclaimed Permanent Voter Cards in units where there would be supplementary election.
CUPP, which was formed a few months ago with the aim of ousting the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in the 2019 presidential election, alleged that the conspiracy was being spearheaded by some unnamed national officers of the commission.
Spokesman for the group, Mr Ikenga Ugochinyere, who nmade the allegations in a statement on Monday, said, the group’s attention was drawn to the conspiracy via a credible intelligence.
He said, “We wish to alert the public that INEC, in furtherance of this move being coordinated by an INEC senior officer from South-West, has refused to release the official list of people who have collected PVCs at the seven polling units where the election is to be held.
“We have it on good authority that less than 1,000 registered voters have collected their PVC’s out of the 3,498 voters. This means that less than 1,000 persons are to participate in the actual voting.
“We demand that INEC immediately release this list. The delay is a calculated plot to announce a fictitious figure of uncollected PVCs to enable the APC to share the PVCs to thugs imported from Lagos.”
Ugochinyere added that the CUPP was also informed that the Information Communications Technology Unit of the commission was on the verge of releasing the telephone numbers of registered voters of the rerun polling units to the APC.
“The plan is to call, harass and bribe the voters with huge sums from the Paris Club refund meant to pay Osun workers their three-year salary,” he added.
Responding to the allegations by the coalition, INEC, said the CUPP should present proofs to back up its allegations, warning the body to stop sowing discord in Osun State.
Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who spoke on Monday, noted that INEC had “conducted six governorship elections since 2015 without manipulation.”
Oyekanmi said, “It is irresponsible of the CUPP to make a wild and unsubstantiated allegation such as this at this time. What exactly is their motive? The media should ask the CUPP to provide concrete proof about this allegation. The INEC has conducted 191 different types of elections, including six governorship elections since 2015. If the commission did not manipulate any of these elections, why will it do so now with the Osun governorship election?
“The CUPP is advised to engage in patriotic actions rather than sowing discord at a time like this.”
Also, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun State, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, denied the allegation, stated that all the unclaimed PVCs were returned to the INEC office.
“I don’t know where politicians get all this information but I am telling you that the unclaimed PVCs are in our strong room here in Osogbo office.
“The distribution of PVCs ended by 5.pm last Wednesday and I instructed all of them at the local government areas to return the uncollected PVCs the same day. They are in our strong room,” Agbajeb said.
Attempts to get the reaction of the acting National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena, were unsuccessful. Calls to his mobile telephone indicated that it was switched off. He had yet to reply to a text message sent to him.
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