Some political parties have raised the alarm over the presence of election materials inside a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-branded car of an electoral officer in Oyo East on Friday, the eve of Oyo State local government elections.
In a video posted by @Apostlekay7 on X, the chairmen of the African Action Congress (AAC) and Because Of Our Tomorrow (BOOT) parties were seen confronting the electoral officer over the election materials.
Ahead of the Oyo State Local Government Elections Tomorrow. This video shows AAC and BOOT Party Chairman confronting Electoral Officer EO Oyo East, for having Election Materials in his private car. Let's Watch as Event Unfolds. pic.twitter.com/WhFP4fiaXM
— KAYODE BABAYOMI (@Apostlekay7) April 26, 2024
Voices could be heard saying, “You are a saboteur. You’ve conspired and sabotaged this election. All your plans have failed. You took the materials in your car and claim that you are being targeted? Who are the ones targeting you?”
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Femi Adeyeye, the national publicity secretary of the AAC, told FIJ that the major reason for the confrontation was the use of a PDP-branded car in conveying sensitive materials to the electoral office.
“A car with a sticker with the Omituntun logo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) brought sensitive materials to the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) office, which should not have happened,” Adeyeye revealed.
“They had offloaded those materials before the state chairman of the AAC sighted the vehicle and the sticker. And he said, why should the electoral officer use a branded car of the PDP to convey logistics materials and sensitive ones like spreadsheets, ballot papers and things like that to the meeting of other political parties’ chairmen? Those were the people shouting in that video.
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“The electoral officer was trying to explain himself but it did not make sense. If you want to be an unbiased electoral umpire, let it be clear.
“The tradition of local government elections in Nigeria is that they write most of these results. That is why parties have been so careful in following this election. We have been resuming to OSIEC office for the past three days to monitor everything that is happening. All these political parties chairmen came under the umbrella of the Intra-Party Advisory Council (IPAC).”
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