The Jimi Agbaje Campaign Organisation has spoken of unearthing plans by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig Saturday’s State Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Lagos.
In a catalogue of electoral misdemeanours reportedly lined up to illicitly swing results in favour of APC, the Agbaje organisation cited bribing of security officers and electoral officials, cancellation of unduly voided votes, intimidation of PDP supporters, hijacking of ballot boxes, stuffing of voting boxes, deprivation and delaying of electoral officers and materials to PDP strongholds, and importation of mercenary voters from neighbouring states.
The rigging plans came to light today in a press statement by FELIX OBOAGWINA, Director of Publicity of Mr. Jimi Agbaje, Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Candidate (PDP) for Lagos State.
According to the group, the Lagos State Government met workers on Tuesday, and warned that it had posted to the polling units, agents who would spy on and report civil servants who voted against APC’s Governorship Candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode.
“Many of these plans have been fashioned in addition to those deployed for the grand rigging that took place at the Presidential and National Assembly elections on March 28, and they are being perfected for April 11,” the statement said.
Speaking on the voiding of votes, the statement recalled the huge volume of voided votes, pointing out that many of them belonged to PDP and could have been salvaged as authentic votes.
Already, according to the statement, the mass importation of ghost or “ECOMOG” voters from Ekiti, Osun and Ondo states had commenced.
It said that APC was paying N10,000 per mercenary elector from the three states, from a central purse in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
Oboagwina said information at the organisation’s disposal revealed the infiltration of field officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by card-carrying APC members.
“The APC loyalists worked as electoral officers in the last election, they mounted polling units and collation units at the ward, local government and state levels and they made a lot of difference in the result that ended up favouring their paymasters,” he said.
The statement also spoke of slush money being amassed to induce electoral officers, including ad hoc and bonafide staffers, manning the polling units, ward, local government and state levels.
In the multipronged attack, according to the statement, APC planned to intimidate PDP and Agbaje supporters and force them to abandon their usual voting constituencies on Election Day.
In places like Ibeju-Lekki, the statement alleged, APC had been camping NYSC members in hotels and bribing them to assist help falsifying figures
It also said APC planned to get its allies within INEC at the local governments to deliberately delay distribution of materials to PDP strongholds and places with high density where non-indigenes.
“In the last elections, constituencies where PDP recorded high votes had the results upturned and in the repeat polls, APC was illegally assisted to win. This will happen again,” it said. “As happened on that day too, polling unit results would be recorded on temporary sheets and changed at the collation stage.”
The organisation said Nigerians must be vigilant and resist all these rigging attempts.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” Oboagwina said. “And we must stand up to this gang of evil planners and election riggers. On Election-Day, PDP will do its bit, but Lagosians owe themselves the duty of ensuring that their votes really, really count.”
