The Osun State Peoples Democratic Party gubernatorial aspirant, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has called on the Inspector General of Police and the Independent National Electoral Commission to monitor the activities of the Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, whom he alleged sponsored the 181 All Progressives Congress members from Osun State that claimed they were election observers but arrested in Owerri, Imo State.
Omisore, while reacting to INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega’s statement that the 181 APC members who claimed to be election observers were fake and never accredited by the commission to monitor the election, said: “What Aregbesola did was to test-run and perfect his rigging plans towards next year election in Osun Sate having declared to his APC members that his second term ambition is a do-or-die affair.”
The senator observed that many of the fake observers from Osun State APC, who forged accreditation documents to partake in the Anambra State gubernatorial election, are members of Aregbesola’s cabinet and wondered why investigation is not being extended to the sponsor and financier of the act to destabilize the election in Anambra State.
He specifically referenced the leader of the fake observers, Waheed Lawal, who is a Special Adviser to Aregbesola on Civil society.
Lawal was allegedly arrested in 2011 for arsonist attacks on the campaign office of Senator Omisore and remains a wanted man, having jumped bail on this crime.
He said that for such a crime suspect to become an aide to a governor signposts the character of the Osun State governor.
The senator said it is on record that Aregbesola himself was standing trial for forgery of security report before he earned immunity as a governor.
Omisore also alleged that the Osun State voters register, just like they did in Anambra State, is being doctored by Aregbesola in connivance with the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Toyin Akeju, who has been outed as an employee of Aregbesola’s godfather, Senator Bola Tinubu.
He wondered why all protests by the state PDP regarding the act have not been investigated by INEC.
Omisore further called on the Attorney-General of the Federation to ensure a diligent prosecution of all electoral offenders in Anambra State election so as to serve as deterrent to other APC members in other states whose plans are to invade Ekiti and Osun States under the guise of election monitors to rig at next year’s elections.
He also asked security agents to thoroughly probe the officials of the electoral body who facilitated the procurement of sensitive materials of INEC getting into the hands of Aregbesola’s thugs parading themselves as observers.
He said: “Violation of electoral rules should be treated as corruption and fraud and so must be metted with adequate punishment to sanitise electoral process and democracy in Nigeria.
“Nigerians must be given the power to chose their leaders with their votes and it is the duty of all politicians to restore value and virtues to our politics.”
He asserted that the Tinubu-led Action Congress of Nigeria, now turned APC, has been a serious threat to democratic culture in Nigeria through perversion of democratic institutions and corruption of their personnel of such bodies.
He said: “We should not forget in a hurry how this tendency put the judiciary into disrepute through its illicit relationship with Justice (Ayo Isa) Salami to pervert the cause of justice.
“In spite of the putative denials of both parties, the whole world saw how Salami book launch recently was an assembly of APC chieftains and Naira rain by its governors.”
He concluded that bringing the full weight of the law to bear on the Aregbesola 181 electoral criminals caught in Imo State is a good place to start cutting the dangerous tendency to size.
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