By Austin Ogwuda
BARELY 24 hours an exclusive investigative report carried out by Advocate Newspaper on alleged plans by the ruling People’s Democratic Republic PDP in Delta State, Nigeria, to rig the forthcoming local government elections went viral, Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, Party leaders became rattled.
As a result, the State Publicity Secretary of the Party was quickly directed to refute the story to dissuade the general public from believing same.
Advocate had in its banner headline – ‘DSIEC recruits, trains PDP members as Ad-hoc Staff for July 13th Delta LG polls’, outlined the alleged rigging plans.
“Advocate.ng reliably gathered that the leadership of the ruling PDP in Delta had selected three persons each, who are PDP card-carrying members per unit, in the 5,863 polling units across the 25 local government areas of the state to work as Ward Returning Officers (WRO), Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs), Presiding Officers and Poll Clerks, thereby sealing the fate of the opposition parties in the election.
” When our team visited some training centers in Oghara, Sapele, Oleh, Patani, Kwale and Asaba on Saturday, June 29, 2024, the story was the same, participants whom our team spoke to confirm to us that many of them who attended the training didn’t apply for the job, but were selected by their party leaders at the unit level at the local government area.
“Advocate.ng also gathered that the part of the plans to rig the election is to ensure that materials never get to any unit where they suspect that the opposition parties have strength, while materials will be supply to where PDP councillorship, chairmanship candidates and other top PDP leadership will be casting their votes”.
Dissatisfied after reading the report both the governor, PDP Party leaders, DSIEC management team, the Commissioners especially the Commissioner for Information, Dr. Ifeanyi Osuoza whose office is charged with the responsibility of ensuring the image of the government of Sheriff Oborevwori is not in tatters, were in one accord that a rebuttal should follow immediately.
And over night the State PDP Publicity Secretary, Dan Ossai came up with this.
PRESS RELEASE
03rd July, 2024
LG Polls: Delta PDP dismisses APC’s emotional instability; Says it’s caused by trauma
Once again, the attention of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State has been called to yet another gibberish published online with the headline: “DSIEC recruits, trains PDP members as ad hoc staff for July 13th Delta LG polls.”
For us in PDP, as well as other right thinking observers, we have become used to the regular antics and spurious allegations of the APC in every election season and we are not at all surprised that they have typically resorted to accusing the electoral umpire, this time DSIEC, of a recruitment exercise that only exists in their delusional imagination.
This of course is the usual smokescreen employed by a political party that simply doesn’t have the wherewithal to organize a proper campaign and it is even clear that the medium used in delivering the weird report of the accusation is heavily compromised in intent and purpose, and out rightly malicious in carrying out the obvious hatchet job.
Indeed, how else should a proper news medium which knows it’s onions be described, when it decided to throw caution to the wind and become unethically opinionated in the opening paragraph of its story in which it stated: “The expectations of Deltans of having what can be considered as credible election in the proposed July 13th Local Government polls might have been dashed as the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC), has recruited and trained members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as ad hoc staff for the conduct of the elections.”
This evidently diminishes and dismisses any claim of the report being authentic and for us in PDP, it is a worthless story. The innuendoes and concocted accusations against Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) are untenable, unsubstantiated and fall into the category of tales by moonlight. Otherwise, we dare the medium and its APC sponsors to provide incontrovertible proof of what they have alleged against DSIEC.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), a party that is presently without shape or form in Delta State, has once again deployed its antic of sponsoring a spurious report to mischievously cast aspersion on the good work that DSIEC is doing and sow the seed of doubt by creating the impression that the forthcoming Local Government elections will not be credible, for the simple reason that the party is not and has not prepared for the election.
Of course every one observing what is going on can attest to the fact that APC in Delta State is a party in disarray, rudderless, with no clear cut leadership; it is a party where, to paraphrase the immortal quote of Chinua Achebe, “turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer, things have fallen apart and the centre can no longer hold, with mere anarchy loosed upon Delta APC”.
Is this the party to be taken seriously with bogus allegations that DSIEC recruited ad hoc officials from PDP members that it will use for the Local Government elections? Is DSIEC just conducting council elections in 2024 in Delta State for the first time? How did it conduct the elections in the previous years? If it did not recruit ad hoc staff from the PDP in previous elections, why will the State electoral body do it in 2024? Infact allegations like this were also the stock in trade of APC in previous elections and they were conclusively proven to be completely false and roundly dismissed outrightly.
The organ through which APC brought out its jaundiced report, claimed to have done some investigations from which it drew its biased conclusion against DSIEC, yet did not give any convincing proof of conducting proper investigation that would make its report credible.
The very online report showed its partisan and bigoted disposition when it succeeded in talking to only the APC State Publicity Secretary, but failed to engage or interface with the PDP State officials so as to balance up the story.
Unfortunately for the medium, the Delta APC Publicity Secretary Barr. Valentine Onojehuo, said that the party was not aware that DSIEC was conducting training for ad hoc staff pointing out that the Commission hardly furnished other political parties with information on the activities leading to the conduct of the election, but the issue he refused to acknowledge is that the APC in the State is not unaware that DSIEC will be conducting the Council elections and for which all registered political parties are eligible to field candidates.
How will a party that is disorganized and messy as a result of its disorderly state, and which did not campaign and has no visible posters of most of its candidates anywhere else except on social media, have the temerity to seek to create an impression that the coming Local Government elections will not be credible?
We are in the days of Artificial Intelligence (AI), through which mischief makers can spin abracadabra just to hoodwink the unwary. But Deltans know better and are not deceived. While PDP in all the 25 Local Government Areas are engaged in comprehensive and well reported campaigns, selling their candidates and seeking their votes, APC, the party with stunted growth and without visibility in Delta State, is crying wolf where there’s none, and seeking to employ disingenuous means to badmouth an election for which the State electoral body has gone far in its preparations.
PDP in Delta State is already in the thick of electioneering campaigns, and we believe so also are other political parties. But let APC, a band of unserious and disorderly politicians be reminded that PDP is on ground in Delta State and will not be distracted by its hysteria. It is the people’s party. That is why Delta is PDP and PDP is Delta. There’s no amount of silly pranks by the unmanageable and traumatized APC that will work to frustrate the council elections.
Delta PDP is fully on ground and will continue to cooperate with DSIEC to ensure that it conducts credible Local Government elections in the State.
PDP! POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!
Signed:
Engr. Dan Ossai, MNSE, CEng.
State Secretary,
PDP, Delta State.
