Date: 2013-09-23

APC candidate in the Offa chairmanship election rerun Prince Saheed Popoola has alleged ongoing falsification of the results by the ruling PDP and officials of the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC).

In a statement in Offa on Monday, Popoola said the PDP gathered the returning officers who served during the rerun poll at a GRA Ilorin residence of a former Works Commissioner from Offa where they were asked to rewrite some concocted figures and sign same ahead election petition tribunal.

Popoola said it was shocking that the Kwara PDP leaders who are shouting blue murder about the undemocratic tendencies of their national leaders are the same people who "supervised, and are still supervising, the daylight stealing of the mandate of Offa people with impunity."

The statement reads: "This is to alert the general public to the dubious and despicable rewriting of the Offa election result by the Kwara PDP. This, as everybody can easily guess, is to wriggle out of the defeat and shame that await the party for the shameful announcement of the loser as winner of the Offa chairmanship/councillorship election rerun on August 31.

"Today, Monday September 23 at about 11a.m. in the GRA Ilorin at the residence of a former Works Commissioner beside Flower Garden Ilorin, the PDP brought stamped but plain copies of election result sheets and asked the returning officers who served during the Offa rerun to transfer onto the sheets with their handwriting figures given to them by PDP chieftains and some officials of KWASIEC. The returning officers were also made to sign the newly concocted results. At about 2p.m., the returning officials left the residence of the commissioner who hails from Offa.

"This shows the desperation of the Kwara PDP. The behaviour of the Kwara PDP, beginning from the announcement of a fake election result on Radio Kwara to this latest falsification of election result, gives Nigerians a clear picture of Kwara PDP's leaders who are crying blue murder over some undemocratic tendencies of the Bamaga Tukur-led PDP even when they supervised, and are still supervising, the daylight stealing of the mandate of Offa people with impunity. Clearly, these fellows are hypocrites and philistines whose sole interest is not whether or not our democracy survives but the amount of public wealth they convert to personal use.

"We urge them to desist from this despicable and shameful behaviour in the interest of peace and democracy."