Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Imo State has revealed that it has gotten intelligence about a renewed plot by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the State to commit large-scale election rigging through massive vote buying in the 2023 general elections.
In a statement issued at the weekend by Collins Opuruzor, Imo PDP state publicity secretary, the opposition party alleged that the APC has begun clandestine distribution of what they tagged, “Vote Canvassing Form”, to voters across the state; requesting the details of their PVC, bank account, polling unit codes.
Opuruzor pointed out that this latest plot by the ruling APC in Imo State to credit voters’ bank accounts on the eve of the elections was activated immediately the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, announced that it had concluded plans to redesign the higher denominations of the Naira and that the extant designs would cease from being legal tenders barely one month to the 2023 elections.
He said, “In order not to be hampered by the resultant scarcity of liquid cash for vote buying and election-day fraud, the APC in Imo has at last resolved to shamelessly route its slush funds for election rigging through bank accounts of the voters.
“Our Party has said time and again that the APC in Imo is not ready to face the electorate. They cannot offer any explanations for the killings, treasury looting, infrastructural miasma and sundry other infamies that have defiled their regime in the State.”
The PDP insisted that the plot to commit brazen fraud to mar the coming general elections in the state should not be swept under the carpet and called on anti-graft agencies in the country to investigate the party in the state without delay.
“That APC in Imo could be caught pants down in this level of electoral heist and brazen assault on Nigeria’s democracy is not a matter that should ever be swept under the carpet.
“As a result, Imo PDP demands immediate disqualification of all APC candidates in the State from participating in the 2023 elections. Our Party is deeply worried about the future of democracy in Nigeria if the provisions of the Electoral Act could be flagrantly violated without consequences.
“Vote buying is a crime against the Nigerian state and our electoral law, and those found culpable must be punished according to the law.”
Opuruzor also called for the immediate investigation of the Accountant-General of Imo State who, the party, alleged is coordinating the execution of the fraud through his office saying his involvement amounts to corruption, abuse of office and aiding and abetting electoral fraud.
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“The accusations that this very awful agenda to enforce vote buying is being coordinated through the office of the Accountant General of the State is most unacceptable. It is a new dimension to corruption and abuse of public trust for the Accountant General to convert his office to the finance department of Imo APC and to lend the same particularly to aiding electoral fraud and funding an onslaught against the soul of our democracy.
“Imo PDP calls on the EFCC and ICPC to open investigations into the activities of the Accountant General of Imo State and effect his arrest without any further delay.
“Our Party regrets that the decadent APC regime in Imo State which now faces imminent and deserved defeat at the polls has never relented in rubbishing all efforts brought to bear by the National Assembly and INEC to sanitize Nigeria’s electoral system and deliver free, fair and credible elections to Imo people.
“Nigerians should recall that barely forty-eight hours after the new Electoral Act came into effect, this same APC regime in Imo, along with its various militia wings, invaded Ngor Okpala during the state constituency by-election and abducted INEC officials after voting had almost been concluded, hijacked election materials and went to private residences and hotels to re-vote and transmit. That was the first and most audacious attack which the new Electoral Act received,” the statement read.
Opuruzor who accused APC of bringing the worst form of misrule in the state, further alleged that since the coming of the new Electoral Act, the ruling party has not rested for a second in its quest to destroy democracy in the country.
His words, “After being caught in widespread voter register fraud, what Nigerians have come to know as “Omuma Magic”, the wobbling political party has resorted to framing key opposition leaders in Imo and penciling them down for arrest, attack and possible elimination.
“Trumped-up charges, wicked propaganda and even forgery of letterheads of prominent opposition leaders have become tools deployed by agents of the massively rejected Imo APC to fruitlessly seek to extend their unpopular rule in the State. But they have taken the patience of Imo people for granted for far too long.”
The PDP appreciated Imo people’s resilience and continued rejection of what it called “all the retrogressive, tyrannical and anti-people plans of the APC regime in the State” promising that Imo is just a step away from being reclaimed from the clutches of bad governance.
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