13 April 2007
Lagos — PEOPLES Democratic Party (PD) gubernatorial candidate in Ekiti State, Mr. Segun Oni, has said that contrary to speculations by the Action Congress (AC), he has no plan to falsify this Saturday's election results.
Reacting to allegation by the AC in the State that he is planning to rig the election results, Oni, an engineer, denied that neither he nor PDP was hatching such plan, accusing AC of being the one that wants to falsify the gubernatorial poll results in the state.
In a statement made available to Daily Champion in Lagos, the PDP governorship candidate said: "In fact, it is the AC that has been inducing people with money to perpetuate fraud in the elections".
Mr. Oni condemned the activities of those he called "external forces" who are fighting desperately to install a puppet government in Ekiti State.
According to him, there is a grand design by the AC to stall the elections in view of the fact that the party is yet to produce a presidential candidate in this month's presidential election.
"We are also aware that the AC has been recruiting thugs in Lagos, Edo, and Kogi States for purpose of unleashing large-scale violence during and after this Saturday's election in Ekiti State.
"However, with the current spate of defection, political alignment and realignment, it is doubtful whether the opposition, which appeared strong on the ground a few months ago, will be able to muster enough votes to stop PDP from winning the forthcoming election in Ekiti State.
"But one thing is clear; the indigenes of the state will not tolerate anything that can truncate the prevailing peace in the state", Oni further stated.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that the AC leaders have since relocated to their home base, going from place to place to woo community leaders and other popular and respected individuals into the party's fold.
This move, it was gathered, is to make up for the shortfall created by the new army of defectors from the party and to ensure the party's victory in the poll.
Reacting to the spate of defection from the AC to PDP, a chieftain who demanded for anonymity said that initially when the rumour came that the suspended Governor Ayo Fayose was interested in working for the party's victory at the forthcoming elections, some party members did not believe it.
"We thought it was a propaganda stirred by the opposition but when I witnessed a conference called by Fayose to the leadership of the party (AC), that convinced me and several other members that what we had heard was the truth.
"But some of us who left PDP for AC because of Fayose now have no option than to return to PDP as it would be foolhardy for us to sit together with Fayose's cronies in the same party", the AC chieftain stated.
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