The Osun State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, are in war of words over alleged plot to rig the State gubernatorial election slated for July 16.
PDP had accused the APC flagbearer and incumbent Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of conspiring with some staff of the electoral body to rig the forthcoming governorship elections.
But the Director-General of the IleriOluwa Campaign Council, Senator Ajibola Bashiru, in a statement made available to reporters, dismissed the allegation as baseless.
Bashiru, who represents Osun Central Senatorial district, added that the allegation was meant to aggravate the prevailing tensions already in the State.
Part of the statement reads, “Sunday Bisi, who is either scared of telling his funder the truth about his slim chances against a proven man of substance or is as delusional as the dancer himself, is only trying to play mind games with the good people of Osun by shamelessly making allegations he cannot substantiate.
“Of course, we understand they are terrified and hiding their fears under infantile tantrums. All their campaign balloons have been deflated by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s sterling performance. Now they are scrambling and grabbing at straws to stay afloat. But the die is cast.
“This new laughable accusation is their reaction to the earth shaking endorsement by the Labour Unions in Osun on Workers’ Day. The vote of confidence left the PDP clan gasping for breath. We were expecting the tantrum. It took them 96 long hours for them to come up with this justification for their anticipated loss at the polls. We sympathise with them but with a strong warning that they should not heat up the polity just because they are stuck and unhappy”.
But Mr. Sunday Bisi, who is the campaign handler of Senator Ademola Adeleke, the PDP governorship candidate, in a statement, insisted that the APC had comprised some staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to rig the gubernatorial elections.
Part of Bisi’s statement reads, “Osun PDP is in possession of detailed scheming by the APC to hijack the electoral commission through populating the electoral officials with direct nominees of the Governor.
“The focus was the doctoring of the list of presiding officers to conduct the July elections.
“There can be no justification for an electoral agency to be jointly determining the list of election officials. This conduct undermines the integrity of the electoral process, casts doubt on the readiness of INEC to conduct a credible election and confirms that the electoral body is still hell bent to aid the repeat of rigging widely perpetrated during 2018 governorship election.”