The Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede has alleged that Thursday’s night fire incident at the Akure office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was a plot to rig the October 10 governorship election.
Jegede in a statement by the Director of Media of his campaign organization, Mr. Samuel Fasua, said his fate was now in the hands of God.
He urged INEC National Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, to order a thorough probe into the fire incident with a view to bringing perpetrators to book.
The PDP candidate called on the Nigeria Police and other security agencies to rise up to the test of integrity thrown up by the INEC fire incident and conduct sweeping investigations
According to the statement, “For a while now, our main rival in this race has been in the eye of the storm over accusation that it was using loan assistance decoy to collect the pin codes in the Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) of drivers, artisans and other professionals across the state.
“Telephone SMS was sent to them through the Ondo State Entrepreneurship Agency, that they should submit the code numbers on their PVCs latest September 2, 2020; that the state government wanted to grant them loans to boost their businesses.
“Here were loans that our people did not get for three and half years that the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration has been in power; but now, the party is trying to use a loan offer as decoy to pervert the inalienable right of the people to elect the candidate of their choice.
“Now, shortly after the collection of innocent people’s PVCs through the backdoor, came the shocking news that the INEC office had been raised by fire and that over 5000 card readers had been burnt.
“We smell a rat in all of this, knowing that the next scene in what looks like a drama of the absurd may lead to steps that can tinker with the authentic INEC voters’ list, with yesterday’s fire incident as alibi.”
In a swift reaction however, the Ondo Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Rufus Akeju, said the allegations were untrue.
Akeju stated that there was no basis to accused the electoral of using the fire to rig and queried whether the accusers knew what the card readers are used for.
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