From Tony Osauzo, Benin

The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the All Progressives Congress plans to substitute members of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) trained for the Edo governorship election with members of the party.
In a press statement signed by the publicity secretary, Mr Chris Nehikhare, the PDP restated its position that the postponement of the governorship election which would have held yesterday, was in line with the party’s devious plan, pointing out that rescheduling the poll had nothing to do with insecurity in the state.
However, in a quick reaction, APC dismissed the PDP’s allegation as baseless and unfounded.
Edo State chairman of the party, Mr. Anselm Ojezua, a legal practitioner, dismissed the claim. He said: “I don’t even know that NYSC members are leaving, I don’t know what INEC is doing. PDP members are trying to run away from their own shadow. They should face the election squarely and stop chasing shadows.”
Sticking to its guns, PDP explained the reason for its allegation: “The postponement was well-planned to undermine the will of Edo people. We are now convinced that a cabal within the APC orchestrated the phantom security advice attributed to the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services (DSS) in the face of imminent defeat in the election.
“For instance, we all know that many members of the NYSC were trained by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as ad-hoc staff for the election; and going by the “NYSC Action Plan, September 2016,” the trained NYSC members are to finish their clearance, as part of their final disengagement process that will end on September 26.
“We have just been told by insiders within the APC that the party had compiled a list of their members that they will secretly use to replace the outgoing trained NYSC members,” PDP said.
The party further said that one of the reasons the APC also asked INEC to fix the rescheduled election for Wednesday, September 28, an official working day, was to deny many electorate outside the state, who planned to come to Edo State for the election, from doing so.
It said hundreds of the electorate outside the state had arrived Edo before the election was postponed with many of them feeling disappointed about the action of the APC in connivance with INEC and security agencies.