* PDP Hijacks Process As Commission Recruits Only PDP Members As Adhoc Staff
HardReporters has authoritatively learnt that governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state has given matching orders to the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC), to without fail make sure that all the chairmanship to the councillorship candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), in the 25 local government councils are declared winners at the Saturday’s, January, 6, 2018 council polls.
Confiding in our correspondent, a senior director in the commission who pleaded for anonymity, revealed that governor Okowa while giving the matching orders to DSIEC chairman, Mike Ogbodu, warned strictly that he will not tolerate a situation where “Even a local government council or ward will be ceded to the APC. He earlier instructed that all adhoc staff must be members of his party, the PDP or those who give solidarity to the PDP.”
According to our impeccable source, “Okowa’s orders also includes the handing over of electoral sensitive materials especially original copies of result sheets to the PDP. I can tell you authoritatively that the whole process for the council election has since been hijacked by the PDP. The council election is as good as conducted because all our commission will be doing on Saturday, January, 6, 2018 is just a mere formality.”
Our source further disclosed that the PDP haven known that the Okowa led administration has not performed credibly well with all the huge resources accrued the state in the last three years, “they decided to embark on campaigns formalities just to disabuse the minds of the general public on the already concluded “rigging” of the council polls. The January, 6, local government election in the state is already conducted and won by the PDP.”
It was reliably gathered that since last week, collation of PDP members to be used as adhoc staff such as presiding officers, returning officers, clerks among others have been going on secretly in some local government areas in connivance with DSIEC staff.
Meanwhile, the Isoko South local government chairman of the Accord Party, Ekpokpobe Itiveh, has raised the alarm that the DSIEC adhoc staff recruitment exercise for the Delta State January, 6, 2018 local government election was fraudulently carried out, describing it as “fraught with fraud, and non transparency.”
Addressing the media at Olomoro, Isoko South local government shortly after a meeting with party faithful, Mr. Itiveh, stated that the manner the exercise was handled by the state electoral commission was a clear indication of what lies ahead.
According to him, the credibility of the DSIEC was already in doubt as the adhoc staff were recruited through the back door, stressing that going by the fraudulent dimension the recruitment exercise took, it would not be wrong to question the credibility of the January, 6, 2018 local government general elections.
The Accord Party boss, also accused the leadership of both Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) of been instrumental to highjacking the electoral process, calling for the need for Deltans to stand out and question the Chairman and members of the commission in view of correcting what he described as an anomaly.
“DSIEC is not the property of any party, or individual. It belongs to Deltans hence due process should be followed. If the adhoc staff recruitment is compromised, the election in essence has lost credibility.”, and called on the state government to prevail on the DSIEC to allow for transparency in their dealings as obtained in other states like Akwa-Ibom, Lagos and others were local government elections were held in recent times.
