PDP accuses INEC of hiring APC members as officials

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of recruiting members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as adhoc officials in the election.

The party’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Banji Okunomo made the allegation in a statement in Akure yesterday.According to him, “it is worrisome that the attitude of the electoral body is showing a compromise with the APC to rig the coming election.”

He said the PDP would write a petition against the INEC on its discoveries in the recruitment saga.Okunomo said: “We have discovered that the INEC had concluded plans to repeat the rigging strategy it allegedly used in Ondo in the last presidential election, where card-carrying APC members were employed as personnel.”

He added that during the election, “Officials of the INEC were involved in directing the voters on where to thumbprint on the ballot paper.”The party warned the electoral body against actions that could cause violence in the state.

Okunomo said the commission’s headquarters had derailed in its duties, by directing the state office to draw a list of its adhoc staff from the chairmen of the APC in each of the local councils.

According to the party, the allegation was capable of discrediting the entire process. He added that voters might be forced to conclude that the outcome of the election had been decided in favour of the APC before the actual polls.

However, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Segun Agbaje, has refuted the allegation.He described it as not only false, but also fabricated to cause tension in the state. “How can somebody come out with such an allegation to cause problem? There is nothing like that,” he said.