Voter Registration: Edo govt, PDP in war of words

The Edo State government and the PDP were
yesterday locked in a war of words over alleged
plans to compromise the ongoing voter
registration exercise.

The state government in a press statement
issued by the State Commissioner for
Information, Prince Kassim Afegbua had accused
a neighbouring PDP controlled governor of
recruiting thugs to register in neighbouring
communities on the Edo State side of the border
to the purpose of being used as thugs during the
main election.

The PDP in a sharp reaction accused the Edo
State government of equally plotting to
compromise the integrity of the voter roll by
inputting Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs
from the north into the voter’s register.
The statement issued by the Edo State
government read in part:

“According to information at our disposal, forty
political thugs have been dispatched to each of
these border villages with the sole aim of
registering them as voters before engaging their
services to perpetrate violence during the
September 10 election.

“We wish to place the security agencies on notice
of this untoward intention of the (neighbouring)
State Government with their Edo PDP
collaborators to cause a breach of security in Edo
state.”

The PDP in a sharp reaction said: “Even within
their party, they use guns and all sort of weapons
to settle political scores. Whenever they are up
to something sinister, they employ diversionary
tactics. Edo people will not fall for his deceit and
lies as they are prepared to vote his party out in
the September election.

“We know for a fact that he has concluded plans
in collaboration with the Northern sponsor of his
puppet candidate to register northerners in the
IDP camps as well others transported from Kogi
and Kano States to boost his party’s dwindling
political fortune.