The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has appointed the President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, as the Chairman of the 85-member campaign council for the September 22 Osun State governorship election.

The party also described the All Progressives Congress as a haven for corrupt people. Saraki, in his remarks, asked Buhari to stand on the commitment he made recently to two world leaders who visited the country that he would conduct a free, fair and credible election and use Osun as an example.

Saraki said aside from the popularity of the PDP candidate in Osun State, the people were yearning for change to return their state to the PDP.

Saraki added that the APC had become unpopular in Osun State due to the alleged maladministration of the ruling party in the state.

He said the PDP must not lose the election having lost in Ondo and Ekiti states.

He said, “The election is important because the PDP has lost two governorship elections in the South-West, Ekiti and Ondo states.

“We must win Osun to prove that Osun is the home ground of the PDP.

“The APC is already no more popular in Osun. I hope that President Muhammad Buhari will live up to his promise to world leaders that elections will be free and fair in Nigeria.”

Saraki called on the leadership of the PDP to capitalise on the disunity in the APC to win the election.

Earlier, the National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus,  who spoke on behalf of the party in Abuja on Monday, alleged that corrupt persons were mobilising and ganging up to use their illicit wealth to install both President Buhari and the APC.

Secondus said, “the APC has made itself a safe haven for corrupt persons and they are converging there not only to get relief but to help install them come 2019 for more protection.”

Secondus, who spoke at the PDP national campaign office at Legacy House, Maitama, during the inauguration of the party’s campaign council for Osun state September 22 gubernatorial election, said the worst form of corruption was rigging of election and buying of votes “which the APC was perpetuating in our polity.”

Secondus warned that the PDP would not tolerate the charade that happened in Ekiti State in July to repeat itself in Osun State.

He 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 the APC and security agencies to exchange results.

“Even security agencies whose allegiance should be to the constitution and people of Nigeria have allowed itself 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 the South-West and other parts of the country.”

He implored lovers of democracy globally to show more than passing interest in the Osun State election “because the APC is not disposed to conducting a free and fair election.”

Attempts to get an official reaction from the APC over PDP’s allegations that the party was now a safe haven for corrupt people were futile. Calls to the mobile telephone number of the acting National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, were neither picked nor returned. A response to a text message sent to him on the subject was still being awaited as at 8:16 pm. – Punch

– Sept. 4, 2018 @ 8:15 GMT |