The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Kogi state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, of breeding fake policemen and soldiers ahead of Saturday general elections.
Raising the alarm Wednesday in Lokoja, the party said it has it on good authority that the state governor also wants to force APC members of the INEC as ad hoc staff, adding that these would be used to manipulate the election process.
Also, the party cautioned the Kogi state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof James Apam, against alleged plans to compromise the forthcoming presidential and National Assembly elections by substituting trained ad hoc staff for preferred APC candidates.
These allegations were contained in a statement signed by the state PDP chairman, Idris Lokoja, who also expressed worries over the way and manner thugs were armed with guns and dangerous weapons to unleash terror on the opposition parties in the state.
He accused the REC of given out the unclaimed PVCs of the local government areas to the ruling APC, describing the actions as a ploy to rig the elections.
Idris called on the agents in all the polling units of Lokoja not only to be vigilante of persons that would present the unclaimed PVCs given to the APC by the REC, but to reject such PVCs, raise the alarm and report to security agencies.
“We have it on a good authority that the ad hoc staff replaced by the APC members have been directed to accept such PVCs but we will resist such attempt.
“We equally frowned at the besieging Lokoja residence of former governor Ibrahim Idris on Friday by fake police and soldiers when leaders of the PDP were holding a meeting on the eve of the botched presidential and National Assembly elections.
“As a political party and major opposition in the state, we are worried by the fact that the fake police officers and soldiers were escorted out of the Government House, Lokoja by genuine policemen”, the statement said.
In a swift reaction to the allegation the Director General Media and Strategy to the governor, Kingsley Fanwo, described the allegation as falsehood taken too far.
Fanwo said the PDP has reduced itself to allegations peddling party instead of campaigning as hard as the APC, saying the ruling party under the leadership of Governor Bello has campaigned hard across the state and was confident of winning the elections convincingly.
