The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that Governor Simon Lalong has hijacked the result sheets for the Saturday governorship elections in Plateau State.
This is even as the All Progressives Congress, APC, Campaign Council, Plateau State described the allegation as laughable and baseless.
The PDP member-elect, representing Jos South/Jos East federal constituency of Plateau State in the House of Representatives, Hon. Dachung Musa Bagos, raised the alarm during a press conference on Thursday in Jos.
He called on security agencies and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Plateau to investigate and retrieve the electoral materials if the allegations were true.
He cautioned INEC against the delay of the governorship result particularly in Wase, Kanam and Jos North Local Government just as it was experienced during the presidential and National Assembly elections.
“There are statements flying in the social media that the result sheets for the governorship election in Plateau were hijacked by the ruling APC for the purpose of rigging the election.
“It is all over on social media that, Lalong has sneaked in result sheets of governorship elections, and we don’t want to take such issues lightly.
“We are here to state it clearly that we will not accept any result that does not reflect the will of the people. We will not accept unnecessary cancellation of election results just to give an edge to the ruling APC.
“We are worried that the APC is trying to portray that there are impending threats of crises and anarchy in the state during the elections. We received credible information that the state government had asked for the deployment of more security to Plateau State.”
However, in a swift reaction, the Media and Publicity Committee of the APC Campaign Council, Plateau State said the alleged plots by the party to rig the election was laughable and baseless.
Spokesman of the Campaign Council, Jonathan Ishaku said APC had endeared itself to the people of Plateau State and they were determined to vote massively for the party.
“The PDP has devised a fear-mongering strategy of crying wolf in its chain of endless press releases. All you hear from them is “APC is rigging this, APC is rigging that, blah,blah,blah, etc.
“There is no closure, none whatsoever on the character of their candidate nor the content of the programmes. But be assured that Plateau people are no fools and they will give their verdict in a couple of days’ time.”
“We wish to appeal to the public on the need for the peaceful, free and fair conduct of the elections. We appeal to voters to eschew all temptations to lawlessness and let their votes count in returning Governor Lalong and all the APC candidates.”
