Press Statement- The Governorship Campaign Council of Osun Peoples Democratic Party has uncovered fresh plot by Governor Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the forthcoming governorship election in Osun State.
We wish to alert the public that Governor Oyetola is mandating civil servants across Osun State to surrender their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) under the cover of a questionable screening. We were alerted through reliable sources that the scheme will avail Governor Oyetola access to the voting details of workers and use it to threaten them to vote him as a condition to retain their jobs.
Osun people are well aware of the unbearable conditions that workers in the state have endured in the last twelve years and a lot of them are not prepared to continue suffering under an inhumane government. Governor Oyetola is aware of the resolve of Osun workers to reject his re-election bid and he is now resorting to coercion to change their voting choice.
We must warn that this is undemocratic and it is an abuse of privilege and office. Our campaign council will not watch and fold its arms while diligent workers are forced into a rigging plot by the APC. Osun civil servants, like every other eligible voters, have rights to democratic choice and we find it dictatorial that Governor Oyetola wants to use their jobs to influence their voting rights.
If Governor Oyetola has done well as he will want us to believe, he should have no need of coercing Osun civil servants to get their voters. We call on every civil servants in Osun State to reject any attempt to manipulate them into surrendering their rights of choice in the forthcoming election.
We realize that the desperation of Governor Oyetola must have put Osun workers in a difficult situation, but we want to assure them that evil will not prevail. We again call on the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, to resist any plot or attempt to reign in rogue officers who are hand-in-cap with Governor Oyetola and the APC through which they intend to rig the forthcoming governorship election.
As a campaign council, we not accept anything less than a free and fair election and we call on the International Community and every lover of democracy to prevail on the INEC and APC to allow the will of Osun people to prevail. We must re-emphasize that Osun people will not accept a repeat of the 2018 brazen stealing of their mandate and it is in the interest of our democracy, and peace that the July 16 governorship reflect the true wishes of voters.
To civil servants in the state, reject and rebuff any request to submit your PVC details. The constitution and all extant laws guarrantee you inalienable rights which no anti-democratic forces can take away.
Signed
Mallam Olawale Rasheed,
For: Senator Ademola Adeleke Campaign Organisation(SAACO)
