Oyatomi
The Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, in this interview with FEMI MAKINDE, alleges that the Peoples Democratic Party is collaborating with some members of the National Youth Service Corps to rig the August 9 governorship poll
How prepared is your party for the August 9 governorship election?
Everything that should be done by any serious and progressive political party for a serious and strategic election as that of August 9 has been done. The preparation has taken four years of serious work from the very day Rauf Aregbesola came into office as governor. We have every reason to believe that our preparation is unbeatable and our confidence is unshakeable. Everything it takes to win fair and square has been put in place and we are confident that the overwhelming majority of Osun citizens are solidly behind the APC.
Do you have confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission that it will conduct a free and fair election?
If INEC is determined to conduct a free and fair election anywhere in Nigeria, it can. And from what we know so far and of what INEC said it has put in place to ensure a free and fair election, it will take extraordinary circumstances for the commission not to deliver. This is where the issue of confidence comes in. Is anything extraordinary happening to give us concern instead of confidence? Yes!
First, we are concerned that INEC has all it takes to deploy sophisticated technology to make the election free of rigging but the commission has refused to do so with the card reader, which will make fake voting impossible. All over the place, the PDP is buying voter cards for the purpose of manipulating the voting process by using mercenaries on election day, who would use the bought voter cards. The PDP will succeed with this evil plan because INEC will not use the card reader. The puzzle here is why should INEC insist it is not necessary to use the card reader except in 2015? That is our concern.
Our greater concern is whether INEC has the capacity to resist and withstand pressure from the ruling party and the government to compromise the process. We are also concerned because the PDP sought for years the removal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Osun State, Ambassador Rufus Akeju. (The INEC Chairman, Prof. Atahiru) Jega resisted because he said the PDP did not produce a shred of evidence to convince him and the electoral body that Akeju was compromised. But about six months to the election, Jega got Akeju out of the way on the excuse that INEC wanted the election to be credible; notwithstanding that the PDP did not produce any evidence that implicated Akeju.
Now, if credibility was the altar on which Jega sacrificed Akeju, how come the credibility of votes is not an issue that should compel INEC to use the card reader? Does this kind of ambivalence encourage confidence? We believe it is possible for INEC to conduct a free, fair and credible election but we have concerns about it. What is currently going on is that people cannot find their permanent voter cards (PVC) from the bunch made available at collection centres. Take this particular case of Aregbesola’s ward for example, where over 400 people still cannot find their PVCs. Contrast that with PDP’s boast that they will make Aregbesola lose his ward as they made Fayemi lose his in Ekiti. Can you smell a rat? However, in spite of all these concerns, we are confident that if INEC wants to, it can still conduct a credible election. The proviso is, if it wants to.
Your party claimed that INEC used photo-chromic ballot papers for the Ekiti poll but the Osun REC has stated that the same materials used in Ekiti will be used in Osun. Is the APC okay with this?
Not after the Ekiti result. The Ekiti electoral process is being challenged in court. Our comments on that process now will be sub judice. We are preparing for all probabilities and possibilities. We won’t be taken by surprise. Ekiti election has gone wrong and the entire electoral process is being challenged, albeit after the PDP won a fake victory in a bastardised process. But all the tricks deployed to make the result different from reality have been revealed, which means Ekiti trick can no longer succeed in Osun.
Why is the APC now complaining about the deployment of soldiers for the election in Osun State?
We have had cause to answer this question before. Deployment of soldiers for electoral process is unconstitutional and undemocratic because it curtails, by intimidation, the freedom of and fairness in voting for the choice of the voter. Everywhere this procedure had been used, the voting process of the election had been compromised; from Anambra to Ekiti. Osun will be different. We may not say more. There is no war in Osun. So what is the essence of deploying troops in a matter that is purely civilian? We have written to Mr. President (Goodluck Jonathan) that he should quickly order his party (the PDP) to stop any plans to rig the August 9 governorship election through the undemocratic process of militarising the state and terrorising the citizens.
Do you have any evidence to substantiate the claim that the PDP is planning to use 74 members of the National Youth Service Corps to rig the election?
If we don’t have credible information, we won’t pass it on to the media. It is your responsibility to investigate. The number — 74 — is high. Before you speak with 20 (of the corps members), you will verify our information. We know our opponents. No evil from hell is too heinous for them to deploy. It is that horrific. Bribing 74 members of the NYSC is nothing to the PDP. These are vulnerable youths and amongst them are children with solid backgrounds and integrity. Over 90 (of them) were invited but just 74 went. The information of what the 74 experienced would have filtered through. It will be easy for you to confirm if you investigated.
The ‘State Boys’ have been described as an assemblage of thugs. Why would Aregbesola be keeping political thugs?
Again, here is where the PDP is wrong. Their perception reflects their personality and predisposition. That party in Osun is synonymous with violence, thuggery and other forms of abnormalities. Because the PDP is incapable of organising youths outside the framework of thuggery and crime, they think that is what Aregbesola is doing with the ‘State Boys.’ The truth is that the ‘State Boys’ is the socially responsible youth wing of the APC in Osun, which Aregbesola is galvanising to mobilise for both the government and the party (APC). They are the core of our foot soldiers, who tirelessly interact with the grass roots to explain government policies to the people and to encourage mass support for the APC and the government of Aregbesola. If you were a politician, would you keep such company or turn them into thugs as the PDP does? If only you know the ‘State Boys,’ you will not buy the clap-trap of the PDP.
The debt profile of Osun is not known by an average person. How much has the APC administration borrowed so far?
Each time knowledgeable people talk about the state’s debt profile, we always try to refer them to the DMO (Debt Management Office), a federal institution run by PDP-led government. That office has come out categorically to say that Osun State’s debt profile is well within limits. Now, you want a figure from us different from what the governor himself has told the press and the world that cared to listen? I confirm to you that the total debt we have incurred in Osun so far is N41bn. We got N30bn through bond and N11bn from Sukuk. Where the PDP liars and their surrogates got figures like N400bn and N600bn as Osun’s debt is possibly from the hell of their satanic imagination.
What has the administration done with the borrowed funds?
Come to Osun and assess the level of development that Aregbesola has effected. You may come around with your accountants and economic experts to evaluate what the loans have been and are still being used for. These are partly as a result of the loans taken and other classical developmental funding models which Aregbesola has adopted to run the state. A comprehensive interview with the Commissioner of Finance will blow your mind and even convince you why Aregbesola cannot and will not lose the August 9 election.
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