The President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki is heading an 85-member campaign council of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the September 22 governorship election in Osun State.
All the party’s serving governors and presidential aspirants are also members of the council. The council, which was inaugurated in Abuja Monday by the national chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus has since resumed work.
Secondus, while inaugurating the team, described election rigging and vote buying as the worst forms of corruption, warning that the PDP would not tolerate the charade.
The party chair recalled that the July 14, 2018 governorship election in Ekiti State was marred by vote buying and election rigging and warned that the Ekiti experience must not be allowed to happen in Osun.
Secondus said, “Enough is enough, PDP will not tolerate Osun being rigged like Ekiti. We have a popular candidate and the performance of the APC ruling government has been awful with months of salaries owed to workers.
“We are aware that the electoral commission that is supposed to operate as an unbiased umpire in the conduct of elections has suddenly made itself a parastatal of the federal government, conniving with APC and security agencies to exchange results.
“Even security agencies whose allegiance should be to the constitution and people of Nigeria, have allowed themselves to behave as if they are operatives of the ruling APC.
“We decided to set up this high powered committee to demonstrate the importance we attach to this election. All our presidential aspirants and some state governors are members, plus all other critical stakeholders from South West and other parts of the country”.
The party chairman implored lovers of democracy around the world to show more than passing interest in the Osun State governorship election, saying that the APC is not disposed to conducting free and fair election.
In his remarks, Saraki charged President Muhammadu Buhari to stand on the commitment he made recently to two world leaders that visited the country recently; that he would conduct free, fair and credible election, with Osun as example.
Saraki said that aside the popularity of the PDP candidate in Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke, the people of the state were yearning for change to return their state to the PDP.