The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Thursday charged voters in Osun State to vote for the party’s governorship candidate, Ademola Adeleke, and monitor their votes on Saturday.
Atiku spoke at a mega rally organised by the party in Osogbo and attended by numerous personalities that include; PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu; former Vice President Namadi Sambo; ex-Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Governor of Sokoto and Bayelsa states, Aminu Tambuwal and Duoye Diri; ex Osun State Governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola; and Deputy National Chairman, South, Taofiq Arapaja, among others.
However, Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde; and his Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike, were absent at the rally.
The ex-vice president, who also said Osun was a PDP state, appealed to members to protect their votes from being stolen
According to him, allowing any form of rigging at the poll would take the state back into darkness.
Atiku said, “Now I have come to Osun to particularly ask you not to allow the APC to steal your victory as they did in the last election. On my way coming to this place, the governor who stole your mandate was driving in the opposite direction, there was nobody who was cheering him.
“He was holding his broom like this, he alone was walking. This state is a PDP state, I have come to appeal to you to make sure you vote and protect your votes, don’t allow any vote rigging in Osun State because you will come back into darkness if you allow them to rig the election again. They have been rigging Osun election since.”
The national chairman of the PDP, Ayu, also appealed to the people of the stage to vote for the candidate of the party.
In their separate remarks, ex VP Sambo and Sokoto governor, Tambuwal, also urged the electorate to support the PDP in the Saturday’s election.
INEC distributes materials
The Independent National Electoral Commission on Thursday distributed both sensitive and non sensitive election materials to the 30 local government areas ahead of the Saturday’s election.
Speaking during the distribution done in the premises of state INEC office, the Resident Electoral Officer, Prof. Abdulganniy Raji, said the materials were distributed early for seamless movement to various polling units on the day of the election.
He also disclosed that some physically challenged corps members would be engaged as adhoc staff for Saturday’s governorship election, adding that 1,955,657 eligible voters registered for the election while more than 1,500,000 electorate have so far collected their Permanent Voter Cards.
