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The All Progressives Congress, Ondo State chapter has denied the claims by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that its members (APC) were inducing voters with money during the just concluded governorship election in the state.
The party in a statement by its Director of Media and Publicity, Steve Otaloro challenged the PDP to provide visual evidence that it actually lured people with money during the poll.
Otaloro urged the general public to ignore the story being peddled by the PDP media team which lost the chance of retaining power seat in the state during the Saturday poll.
He said, “Our attention has been drawn to a malicious publication on the internet purporting that one of our party chieftains, Engr. Tunji Light Ariyomo was sharing money to voters in Ward 2 in Akure South Local Government (LGA) area, Ondo State on Election Day.
“As a party, we want it on record that this is a concocted mischief designed originally by the PDP to upset the momentum carried by the APC unto the election day in Akure South LGA by undermining the credibility of one of our frontline leaders in the local government. We are particularly disappointed that some media houses could lend themselves to propagating such outright malicious fabrication even when the PDP noisome accuser in the video never made such claim.
“Everybody in Akure is familiar with the popularity of Engr. Ariyomo among the local folks and the feverish support given to him by the youths. This was what was termed campaigning by the accuser when the chant of IMOLE rented the air upon the arrival of Ariyomo in his ward on that day. Otherwise, it is pure mischief for any sane person to accuse Engr. Ariyomo, an avowed advocate of cashless politics of sharing money for votes.
“We have identified the PDP led state government and the PDP spokesman, Dayo Adeyeye, as the sources of this reckless unsubstantiated accusation. The party’s objective was to derail the election of Saturday where the people of Ondo State freely, fairly and peacefully expressed their preferences. Their smear campaign is evident demonstration of desperation and confusion by minds that faced imminent electoral defeat which has been reflected in the fact that the PDP led government in Ondo State via its ondoTV would later graduate this accusation from canvassing for votes to sharing of money.
“As a party, we hereby challenge the PDP led state government, their party and agents to make public the purported video where our party chieftain was sharing money, attempting to share money or canvass for votes.”
