Following the arrest of four men with three Direct Data Capture Machines in Ibadan, Oyo State, a former governor of the state, Alhaji Lam Adesina, has said the Action Congress of Nigeria has lost confidence in the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Ayo Adakeja.
The suspects were said to have been arrested at a hotel in Bodija area on Saturday while attempting to tamper with the voters’ register of some local governments including Afijio and Ibadan South West.
They were reportedly taken to Bodija Police Station from where the case was transferred to the police area command in Iwo Road.
Speaking with journalists on the development on Sunday, Adesina, who is the leader of the ACN in the state, insisted that the incident had proved beyond reasonable doubt that Adakeja could not conduct free, fair and credible elections in the state.
He alleged that ongoing investigation of the suspects had shown that the voters’ register for 27 local governments in the state had been tampered with.
He said the party had sent a petition to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, calling on the deployment of Adakeja.
Adesina called on the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Baba Bolanta, and the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to get to the root of the incident.
Also, the ACN governorship candidate in the state, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, said the development was an attempt by the Peoples Democratic Party to manipulate the voters’ register with a view to rigging the election in collaboration with INEC.
But the INEC spokesman in the state, Alhaji Ayodele Folami, said the commission was making contact with security agencies on the incident, saying the commission’s finding and the way forward would be made public.
Meanwhile, the state chapter of the PDP has said that no member of the party was arrested or involved in the incident.
The party’s Director of Media and Strategy, Mr. Morohunkola Thomas, said information available to the party showed that the men arrested with the DDC machines were INEC officials that had no link to the PDP.
He said, “Why the leaders of the ACN are trying strenuously to link the PDP with the incident is clear. The impending electoral defeat awaiting both the ACN and the Accord Party in the April general elections is not easy to accept; so, they have to do anything to discredit the PDP.
“No amount of poisonous propaganda against the PDP and its governorship candidate will stand the test of time because the truth will always prevail.”
Thomas believed that to accuse any political party of tampering with INEC registration materials, when registration issues were already closed and number of voters in each polling ward, local government and state was already in the public domain, amounted to chasing shadows.
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