The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Osun State chapter, on Monday alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was colluding with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to alter the result sheets of the governorship poll held on the 22nd September; 2018 and the rerun exercise, which was won last Thursday by the candidate of the party, Mr Gboyega Isiaka Oyetola.
This was contained in a press statement signed by the chairman of the PDP in Osun State, Hon Soji Adagunodo, which was forwarded to the newsmen in Osogbo.
Adagunodo, who averred that the victory of the Oyetola cannot stand the test of electoral integrity and justice said credible information at the disposal of the PDP indicates that “result sheets of several local governments where the INEC did a deliberate wrong summation of figures were being re-written in the Osun State Government house, Osogbo.”
The statement reads “each of the electoral officials who signed the initial copies of the result sheets was being offered N2 million by the APC to sign doctored results which would be tendered at the election petition tribunal.”
“The PDP warned the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun State and other top officials of the body to refrain from acts of illegality which could lead to terrible legal consequences and bring them into disrepute. The party said Nigerians and posterity will hold INEC accountable for any further acts of subversion of the will of Osun people as expressed in the September 22nd governorship election”, the statement added.
But, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of INEC in Osun, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, described the position of the PDP as untenable, saying the result sheets of the elections cannot be assessed or doctored by anybody.
Reacting during a telephone chat with newsmen, he contended “how can we doctor the result sheets of the election. Is that doctorable? Since we have given the copies of the results sheets to party agents at the polling units, is it possible to alter the result? Anyway, I am not aware of that. Nobody can doctor anything. I don’t have the results with me and none of my staff has assessed the results.”
He stated further that “the results sheets are with their party agents. They should go and prove that at the election tribunal. The collation officer cannot collate anything at the polling centre minus one vote from various wards from the local government. Then, the Returning Officer (RO) cannot collate anything except from the results brought from the 30 local government areas.”
Similarly, the director of publicity, research and strategy of the APC, Mr Kunle Oyatomi posited that the PDP should go and test the strengthening of their argument at election petition tribunal, pointing out that “if they have anything to say contrary to what has happened, they should go and test their strength in court.”
“They have nothing under the sun to take to court. They are the perpetrators of evil. They wanted to win by fraud and the fraud was exposed. They did it in the first ballot and they did not succeed and in the second ballot, they failed. How can somebody that want to win camped supporters and take them to polling units where the cards they were holding did not even match the units they wanted to vote.”, he remarked.
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