Labour alleges plot to rig Kwara governorship poll

LABOUR Party (LP) yesterday alleged a plan by the Kwara State’s Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the Saturday April 11 Governorship and House of Assembly elections.

Director, Information and Media of the state chapter of LP, Opeyemi Abe said in Ilorin, “We recently uncovered the plot by the APC in Kwara State to compromise Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Electoral Officers at the polling units and rig the forthcoming Governorship and State Assembly polls in the state.

Abe alleged, “As part of this criminal plot, the party has bought thousands of PVCs, which they plan to deploy to their agents in various polling centres in the state. The agents, according to the plan are to planning to induce the INEC Electoral Officers at the Polling Units to accredit the faceless PVCs while they in turn will thumbprint the ballot papers.

“This highly reprehensible plan is part of the desperate efforts of the state government to manipulate the elections and force themselves on Kwarans knowing they are no longer popular in the state.

“We call on INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, and the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kwara State to put their house in order and guard against plans by the State government and APC in Kwara State to use INEC Electoral Officials to subvert our electoral process.

“We urge INEC to safeguard the integrity of the elections on Saturday, as anything short of a free, fair, and credible election will not be acceptable to the people of Kwara.

“We enjoin our teeming supporters and voters in Kwara State to be vigilant at their voting centres and guard against plans by the APC or any other party to rig Saturday’s Governorship and State Assembly elections. We should all ensure that our votes count this time around.”

Reacting to the allegation, the Kwara State Chairman of the APC, Ishola Balogun-Fulani said the LP allegations “are baseless, uninformed and a lazy approach to a serious issue like election.”