The People Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday accused the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) of plans to fake technical staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with a bid to tamper with the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) to rig the 2024 Edo State governorship election scheduled to hold on September 21, 2024.
The party also accused the opposition party of uploading foreigners and ‘emojis’ as party agents, while the Labour Party (LP) was accused of uploading same picture several times.
The ruling party in the state warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to allow any political party that has not filled its party agents after the July, 30 expiration date do so.
Speaking at a press conference in Benin-City, PDP state chairman in Edo, Dr Tony Aziegbemi said the APC did not meet with the requirement in uploading party agents in 3,037 polling units and in 17 Local Government, saying the party has polling agents in only 1,482 polling units and 1 local government.
He also claimed that the ruling PDP uploaded polling agents in 4,378 polling units and failed to upload in just 141 units.
Aziegbemi further warned the people of the state against trusting their votes with the opposition APC.
He said, “You will recall that INEC had issued a timetable and schedule of activities in Edo State for the Governorship Election. There are 13 items on that document. I draw your attention to item 9 “Submission of names of political agents, to be uploaded on INEC Portal”.
“INEC created a portal for political parties to upload their agents and access codes were given to the political parties. INEC portal for uploading polling agents opened on the 17th of July and automatically shut down on the 30th of July at midnight.
“We demand that INEC publish in good time the names and pictures of all appointed RTECs for the election and their posting”.
But reacting to the PDP allegation of its plot to rig the election, Media Director of APC Campaign Council in the state, Prince Kassim Afegbua, said it is the PDP that is planning to rig the poll.
He called on the party to campaign to the electorate, saying that the N500 million the state government allegedly spent on hiring singer Rema to Benin should have been spent to improve the lot of the market women who he said were suffering.
On the claim of political parties not meeting INEC deadline for submission of party agents, Afegbua said the agents names had been submitted, explaining that all parties had up till 12 midnight of Friday to upload the agents’ pictures to INEC.