TheCable

About 500,000 permanent voters cards (PVCs) which were either unclaimed, not handed over to their authentic owners or were obtained fraudulently, have been cloned by some persons ahead of the Osun gubernatorial election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged.

Incumbent governor and candidate of APC, Rauf Aregbesola (pictured, top), and candidate of PDP, Iyiola Omisore, are believed to be the front-runners in the governorship race.

APC’s allegation came on the same day the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described the directive of the opposition party’s directive that its officials across the country should relocate to Osun state until the end of the gubernatorial election as a “brazen assault on democracy tailored to intimidate the electorate and prevent them from freely voting the candidate of their choice”.

According to national publicity secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who issued a statement in Osogbo on Monday, “these cloned cards, mostly in the hands of persons from states other than Osun, are to be used along with the authentic PVCs issued to the electorate in Osun state during the August 9 Osun governorship election”.

APC claimed that thousands of people in possession of the cloned cards scattered across the country, especially in the states neighboring Osun, were being induced monetarily and instructed to super-impose their photographs on the cloned PVCs.

”The game plan is for them to arrive early at the polling booths on election day, where conniving electoral officials will turn a blind eye to this fraud by not checking whether or not the names of these impersonators with cloned cards are on the voters register before going ahead to accredit them, to pave the way for them to use the cloned cards to vote at the expense of the genuine holders of the cards,” it said.

It further alleged that based on this plan, security agents would be on hand to brutalise, arrest and detain any agent or voter who might want “to challenge this illegality.”

It also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that only the voter-registers used to issue out the PVCs to voters until August 4 are used to conduct the Osun election.

”We also demand that copies of these registers, which are already in possession of the local government electoral officers, be made available to all political parties at least 72 hours before the election. Anything short of using the registers that contained the names of the authentic voters will not be acceptable,” it warned.

APC urged the people of Osun and its members in particular to be very vigilant ahead, during and after voting on Saturday.

”Their desperation knows no bounds, hence they will do anything, no matter how illegal, to thwart the will of the people. But no power is bigger than people’s power, and no inducement is worth anyone’s conscience. The votes of the people of the state of Osun must not only be counted, but must count on Saturday,” it said.

Omisore

Similarly, PDP, in responding APC national chairman John Oyegun’s directive that the party’s officials should relocate to Osun, claimed that the directive was calculated to cause mayhem in the state.

“The directive is in furtherance of APC’s two-pronged plot to move in billions of naira to induce voters as well as smuggle in thousands of armed thugs from other APC states to cause mayhem and disrupt the process in the face of defeat,” national publicity secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, wrote in a statement on Monday.

PDP pointed out that in seeking to import mercenaries from other states, APC had exposed its lack of genuine followership in Osun, which explains the reason why it has been distraught by the “massive support” being enjoyed by the PDP.

“Having realised that the people are now with the PDP, a desperate APC is doing everything to cause confusion, intimidate the people and prevent them from expressing their wishes and aspirations in a free election,” it said.

“However, we wish to inform the APC that they will be disgraced, as no amount of intimidation and inducement will deter the people of Osun state from pushing through their resolve to end the APC reign of impunity on August 9. Indeed, never in history has good been defeated by evil.”

The PDP also described as laughable, APC’s allegation that the party sought to reap where it did not sow, noting that Osun remains a core PDP state.

“Nigerians are aware that the APC never won election in Osun state but is merely enjoying a mandate stolen from the PDP through the court,” the party said.

It urged the people of Osun state to remain calm and vigilant while charging them “to resist any attempt by the enemies of their state to subvert their collective will at the polls.”

The party also called on “Nigerians to note the developments and hold the APC responsible should there be any break down of law and order in Osun state.”