Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Kassim Afegbua, who earlier faulted his party for picking the state governor, Godwin Obaseki, as governorship candidate, has alleged a plot by his(Afegbua’s) party to manipulate the Saturday election.
In a statement yesterday, Afegbua insisted that the PDP was wrong in handing its ticket to Obaseki, who he alleged has not done well in office.
He said the PDP had perfected a plan to rig the election, using two governors from South South and two governors from North East.
According to him, the PDP “has partitioned the state into three segments based on its senatorial structure,” with the four governors tasked to do everything to ensure victory.
He said one of the governors from South South “has been assigned to oversee activities in Edo South, comprising seven local governments.”
Another South South governor, he said, “has been given the responsibility to oversee Edo central senatorial district, comprising five local governments,” while the two North East governors “would both oversee Edo North.”
Afegbua accused the PDP of planning to hire thugs from neighbouring states “to cause mayhem in the process of perpetrating their rigging.”
He accused Governor Obaseki of claiming projects he never executed, declaring: “It smacks of dubiety for the governor to lay claim to TETFUND funded projects in Ambrose Alli University, Tayo Akpata University of Education, Ekiadolor, College of Education, Igueben, Edo state Polytechnic, Usen. These are institutions that have not enjoyed any intervention by the state government, yet they lay claims to projects presently undertaken by the Federal Government. This is dubious and fraudulent.