• Warns against vote-buying, counting manipulation
• Steer clear of voting places, IG tells Amotekun, others, cautions against violence
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised the alarm that the propaganda suggesting a walkover in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the incumbent governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, at the coming governorship election, was a deliberated strategy to rig the poll.

The party, therefore, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that the election is free, fair and credible, just as it insisted that all anti-graft commissions in the country should be on ground to stop vote-buying or inducement of the electorate during the election.

National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Debo Ologunagba, told The Guardian that there was no crisis at the national level of the party that is capable of undermining the chances of its candidate, Agboola Ajayi, from winning the poll.

He said the propaganda was a strategy being deployed by ruling party to discourage the teeming supporters of the PDP from coming out to vote and also a method deliberately adopted to rig the election. Ologunagba also appealed to the media not to set a bad agenda by linking the national issues of PDP with the Ondo election.

However, a chieftain of the Ondo APC, Bola Ilori, said that Aiyedatiwa would be closing his campaign on a very high hope of retaining power on Saturday, just as he added that the economic hardship, which PDP is latching on to win, is not going to work out in Ondo State.

MEANWHILE, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, has said that only the federal security agencies and other members of the inter-agency consultative committee on election security would be allowed to participate in the election.

He, however, urged the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun Corps, Vigilante Corps and others, to steer clear of the voting places. A statement, yesterday, by the Force Spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi, stated that the IG had ordered the deployment of officers from various specialised units, including the Special Intervention Squad, Police Mobile Force, Counter-Terrorism Unit, Special Protection Unit, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit, and K-9 Unit, among others.

Adejobi, who added that aerial patrols would be conducted with police helicopters, while gunboats would patrol the state’s waterways and riverine areas to ensure security across all terrains, said the IG vowed to deal with political thugs or individuals planning to disrupt the elections.