The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State, Oladipupo Adebutu, has accused the All Progressives Congress of stuffing 14,000 votes into ballot boxes in Saturday’s governorship election.
He said the APC and its candidate, Governor Dapo Abiodun, used violence and threat to execute their plans in polling units across the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday declared that Abiodun won the poll with 276,298 ahead of Adebutu who scored 262,383 votes.
Adebutu, while speaking at a press briefing in Abeokuta on Monday, said his party would audit the ballot papers.
He said, “The ruling party couldn’t get our stronghold, so they were snatching ballot boxes everywhere. After snatching ballot boxes, it wasn’t enough, so they started doing advanced mathematics.
“My brother from Iperu started flying around with helicopters. He flew to Iju, they started adding the figures. He went to other areas. We found 10,000 illegal votes without doing forensics. We won’t mention figures but in Sagamu, Ogijo, they said the ballot got burnt.
“We have found 10,000 votes already. We have found additional 4,000 votes in Ogijo and we have not even started. By the time we start auditing, you will see that their votes are not up to half of what was declared.”
Also speaking, the state Chairman of the PDP, Sikirulai Ogundele, who was represented by his Vice chairman, Kayode Bangbose, called on INEC to declare the Ogun governorship election inconclusive.
He said, “The Independent National Electoral Commission in unpatriotic connivance with the ruling All Progressive Congress and Governor Dapo Abiodun with security agencies provided support, brazenly rigged the results of the governorship and house of assembly elections.
“With tangible proofs of reckless manipulation, over-voting and gross disregard for the dictates and provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, we can safely say that the figures announced by INEC as the final result of the governorship election does not represent the popular wish of the people.”
Several attempts to get reaction from the APC Publicity Secretary in the state, Tunde Oladunjoye, failed as his phone was not going through and neither did he respond to the messages sent to him.
