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Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki has on Wednesday debunked the claims that he has kitted the state security agency with military uniform.
This came following the allegation from Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State, on Tuesday, that Governor Godwin Obaseki was kitting operatives of the Edo State Security Network with military uniforms to allegedly use them to rig the September 21 governorship election in the state.
Reacting swiftly, the governor’s media aide, Crusoe Osagie, described the claim as infantile and “a cocktail of complete falsehood”.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Director of the APC Media Council, Kassim Afegbua, said, “We have been inundated with calls from well-meaning Edo electorate of his game plan to use threat, intimidation and harassment to disenfranchise Edo electorate from exercising their right at the elections.
“We had decried before the state government’s activities of arms procurement.
“The Edo State Government has been recruiting even more hands into their illegal Edo Security Network with the sole motive of empowering them for the underhand assignment of rigging the election by intimidation.
“We are aware that the state government has now started producing police and military uniforms which the members of the Edo Security Network will be made to wear on the day of the election, to disguise as real police officers and military personnel; to assist them in carrying out their pernicious assignment.
“Some citizens with moral rectitude, who were invited for a briefing at the Government House, on Monday, raised concerns about this plot and turned down the job offer. The state government is still arranging to procure more guns and other ammunition for them for the D-Day of the election.
“By this statement, we are appealing to the military authority as well as the Nigeria Police, particularly to the Inspector General of Police, to please come and rescue Edo State, immediately. We urge these authorities to commission their men to carry out investigations concerning these serious allegations in order to act appropriately, and forestall the breakdown of law and order in Edo State.”
Reacting in a statement, Governor Obaseki’s Special Adviser on Media Project, Crusoe Osagie, said, “The infantile statement by the Media Consultant to Edo All Progressives Congress Governorship Campaign Council, Kassim Afegbua, in which he made spurious allegations about plans to rig the September 21 governorship election, should be disregarded as a cocktail of complete falsehood.
“The rambling is just another failed attempt to mislead the public and distract people from their devious plan to rig the election having realised that they have lost favour with the people and cannot win in a free and fair contest.
“Who has been boasting of federal might since the start of the campaigns, harassing and intimidating innocent citizens of the state and members of the opposition? It is rather laughable and interesting that the very thing the APC is already doing is what they are claiming that other persons are doing.
“Does anyone need answers to why the APC in Edo State has been relentless in their campaign of calumny against the State’s Security and Vigilante Network in the run-up to the governorship elections and why they want to, by all means, discredit and disable the intelligence gathering scheme, which security agencies in the state have confirmed their role in combating crime and criminality, especially in the grassroots?
“They are jittery over their impending loss after presenting an unlettered and incompetent candidate for the office of a governor and have now resorted to machiavellian tactics to subvert the will of the Edo people.
“We call on the authorities to place their eyes on Afegbua and the APC because what they are accusing others of is exactly what they are planning to do themselves. This tactic of accusing others of their own devious plot is a strategy that the APC is well known for, and the people of Edo State are too wise to be fooled by vain subterfuge.
“We call on the police, the military, and other security agencies to please have all hands on deck to ensure a level playing field, guaranteeing a free, fair, and credible election in Edo State.”
