“The ruling APC party has gone to the extent that they’ve used OYES cadets as presiding officers instead of using corps members," Omisore said.
Iyiola Omisore, the Osun State governorship aspirant of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of recruiting the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) cadets, instead of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, for the September 22 governorship election in the state.
He made the allegation during a press conference at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre, Osun.
OYES is a revolving volunteers scheme designed by the Rauf Aregbesola government as part of efforts to address unemployment.
“The ruling APC party has gone to the extent that they’ve used OYES cadets as presiding officers instead of using corps members. They’ve gone to manipulate the NYSC authorities to use OYES cadets to compromise election at that level,” Omisore said.
He also accused the party of being too desperate to rig the forthcoming election.
He said: “We've had heard of complaints of harassment and that they are going to rig the election; that they are going to arrest political leaders, and that they have cash. We also heard that they are bringing thugs from Lagos State.
“This is a common thing in Osun State and it is not hidden. Unfortunately, at the rally, it was said that they are going to use federal power to force Osun people. We want to assure Osun indigenes that they should be ready to defend their votes.
“We are going to ensure that we have a credible election in this state. We mean business and we are ready for the election. We want to charge our agents to be vigilant at polling units."
SaharaReporters' attempts to get the APC to respond to the allegation were unsuccessful, as calls and messages to the line of Prince Mufutau Okongo, the party's Chairman in Boripe Local Government, were not answered.