The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has alleged that the present governor, Mr Ademola Adeleke, gave ₦20,000 to certain civil servants, the members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), as well as other local residents with the aim of influencing the result of the state governorship election slated for August 15.
According to the party’s Director of Media and Information; Kola Olabisi, the payments were meant to be an electoral incentive, not a welfare initiative.
The opposition alleged the money was granted for the works of State government officials, local government officials, Corps’ officials and others as political appeasement of Governor Adeleke before the polls.
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The party called for recipients to “reject a ‘Greek gift’ and that “voters should not be tempted by money to cast their votes”. It also said that while the governor had approved some cash payments, he had not taken action on some other financial commitments made to union representatives, such as leave bonuses, pension deduction remittance, cooperative contributions, health insurance deductions and union fees.
This has escalated political tension in the state of Osun ahead of the General Election as a number of cases have been filed.
The claims have triggered political tension in Osun state as electioneering kicks in. The APC had already said that if the situation conforms to the claims, it would make the electoral process lose its credibility as such and urged the relevant stakeholders to ensure electoral processes do not witness activities that can prejudice a free and fair election.
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Governor Adeleke’s government has not issued any public rebuttal unto the specific claim of ₦20,000 payments having been meant to manipulate voters.
The governor had, though, called on the NYSC members deployed for election related activities to be neutral and abstain from all inducement and political pressure.
The allegation comes after several exchanges between the Adeleke camp and APC ahead of governorship election which saw both sides leveling accusations against each other regarding campaign activities and conduct as well as electoral integrity.
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There is no independent evidence published to back up information from APC, nor has any election management or anti-corruption body declared investigations or inquiries into the matter.
