Governor Oshiomhole warns PDP against Use of Mercenaries in 2015
The Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party has plans to hire mercenaries for the ongoing continuous voter registration for the 2015 general elections.
The governor alleged this after monitoring the voters registration exercise in Etsako Central Local Government Area of the state, saying that mercenaries were imported into the state illegally in order to mar the electoral process.
Oshiomhole said: “I have heard that some politicians are bringing in people from neighbouring states and I find that very strange.
“I was told that somewhere in Uromi, a PDP Leader brought in soldiers to provide escort while they brought in people with buses from neighbouring states to register in one of the Wards in Uromi and I find that very worrisome because the whole idea is not to import mercenary voters.”
“I can understand if someone who is resident outside his village wants to go back to the village for the purpose of election but the villagers know everybody.
“So, when you now import people who are not from the village and register them, that distorts the numbers and creates problems. It creates problem for the electoral system.
“I want to appeal strongly to INEC to have a way of monitoring the exercise to ensure that there are no mercenary voters. In Uromi, the leaders protested when the politician brought the mercenaries to register, but because of the soldiers that were escorting them, they had to leave.
“And these people were brought in with several buses, they were brought in buses owned by a popular transport company. This is very disturbing and I hope that INEC will check these kind of malpractices.”
Oshiomole also decried the lapses on the side of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during the registration process, urging INEC to live up to expectations for the forthcoming elections.