The Edo Governor said this when he hosted the Inspector –General of Police, Ibrahim Idris at the Edo Government House.

The Governor of Edo state, Adams
Oshiomhole, has accused Governors in the
South-South of plotting with the Edo
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the
governorship polls which was slated to
hold on September 10, 2016.
Oshiomhole also alleged that the PDP in Edo
state hired 8,000 militants to rig the
governorship elections.
The Edo Governor said this when he hosted the
Inspector –General of Police, Ibrahim Idris at
the Edo Government House.

He alleged that the Edo PDP liaised with

Governors of Rivers and Delta states to bring

militants to the state and disrupt the elections.

According to Leadership, Oshiomhole said “In

line with my tradition, I have always tried to

speak out on any matter that I am worried

about. I first raised this alarm on the eve of

INEC Continuing Voters’ Registration exercise,

an exercise that has been designed to register

those who have become eighteen between the

last registration and the current one.

“But these criminals who are determined to

perpetrate violence and deny us the beauty of a

peaceful election, unable to find local

participants have chosen to import these

militants with the support of two or so of my

brothers. When I say brothers, I mean brother

governors. It doesn’t matter if I disagree with

them, they are my brothers.

“They are exporting militants to Edo State to

register so that with the PVC in their hands,

they will appear to have the lawful basis to be

present at the designated polling units where

they are expected to unleash violence on

election day.”

He said, “When I raised this alarm, I should

expect naturally criminals are not as

courageous as they seem. They denied that

there was any such plan, but happily our ever

vigilant, the peace-loving electorate were able

to apprehend some of these people from other

states that came into Edo State for the purpose

of this exercise.

“At least, thirteen of them were handed over to

the police. The IG may wish to establish what

has happened to those people who were handed

over. So, we handed them over to the police in

line with what we were expected to do as

civilised people.

“Having done that, we are clear that there are a

lot of people, up to eight thousand of them who

are non-resident in Edo State, who are not

indigenes of Edo State, who are indigenes and

residents of Delta and Rivers states and some

other states in the South-South, some from

Bayelsa state who have registered for the sole

purpose not to swell the votes, but to be

present in various locations on election day.

“Now, as part of the processes they put in place

to effect this, they had conspirators in INEC that

made available to them data capturing machine

in the residences of various opposition leaders.

We shared these experiences with the police

and the DSS."

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo

State has described the Peoples Democratic

Party’s (PDP) claim » that it influenced the

postponement of the state governorship

elections as idiotic.