PDP Paid $5,000 Per Ward Of The 329 Wards In The State As A Part Of Their Vote-Buying Strategy – YPP

The People’s Democratic Party, or PDP, was accused by the Young Progressives Party, or YPP, of giving $5,000 to each of the state’s 329 wards in order to purchase votes for pastor Umo Eno to win the election. Governor of Akwa Ibom State in 2023.

In a press conference held at the party secretariat on Monday, YPP Secretary Amb. Kelvin Umo claimed that it had been documented that PDP agents had been seen openly paying people 10,000 naira to purchase their votes.

“There has been a clear deployment of monetary incentives as a weapon against poor voters in the state,” he said. Reliable intelligence shows that the state government and PDP agents paid approximately N1.3 million per unit of the 4,353 units in the state and $5,000 per ward of the 329 wards in the state as a part of their vote-buying strategy.

Additionally, he charged that the PDP state government sent out thugs dressed in police, military, and paramilitary uniforms to assault, kill, and disperse YPP agents and supporters at voting locations and registration sites throughout the state.

More than 50% of the results were not uploaded when the INEC was announcing the results in the state, according to Umoh, who also claimed that the Electoral Act and its regulations were not observed.

He claimed that elections were allegedly rigged and brought to people’s homes, where the results were altered, and claimed that attaching his signature would constitute consent.

Umoh listed incidents of violence and murder during the elections, citing Mr. Abraham Bassey Ekpenyong’s alleged murder at the INEC office, the assaults on YPP supporters in Atan Offot, Uyo, the theft of election supplies in front of foreign observers, as well as murders in Etim Ekpo and other LGAs.

He pointed out that despite visiting all 4,353 polling locations throughout the state, international observers, the media, and other election stakeholder groups and monitors did not mention any instances of violations that served as the basis for the accusations that the YPP and APC have found it difficult to refute in their various reports.

In a statement titled “YPP’s final cry of defeat and the imminent evaporation of mushroom political parties,” the Publicity Secretary referred to the YPP’s claim that the large number of votes Akwa Ibomites cast for PDP as an insult to their character.

The PDP chieftains named by the YPP were strong grassroots organizers who had won the support of their constituents, according to Bassey, who denied that they had resorted to stealing election materials and bringing them to their homes for manipulation. In the event that leaders charged by the YPP decide to sue the YPP secretary for libel, he stated that the party would give them the required backing.

But he added, “Our party takes very seriously the YPP’s outright defamatory remarks towards these respected leaders of our party and hereby declares that we will back them. and provide them with all the assistance they require if they decide to challenge the YPP and the secretary for something that is akin to libel in order to make him provide evidence in court to back up the serious claims he made in the meeting newspaper.