An Osun state based Civil Society Organization (CSO), the Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State(CSCEOS) has uncovered plan by the State governor,Mr. Rauf Aregbesola to use State owned ambulance vehicles to perpetrate electoral fraud by using it to carry ballot boxes stuffing with ballot papers as well using it to board political thugs imported from Lagos with their sophisticated weapons to various poling units across the Osun west Senatorial district during the forthcoming bye-election .
The group also disclosed that the State government had concluded arrangement to make use of refuse vehicle for the same purpose in the units where number of available ambulance could not reach to carry out the nefarious electoral fraud during the poll,alleging that all the political thugs to be used by the State government had been lodged in an hotel around Islahudden Grammar School,Ring -Road area,Osogbo in the State capital .
A credible source from government house, Oshogbo informed the civil group that Mr. Aregbesola and his team came up with the idea of using emergency ambulance vehicles as a way to beat the security operatives deployed to monitor the forthcoming bye election in the state by deceiving them that they carried emergency person to the hospital during the poll.
This was contained in a statement issued by the CSCEOS’ Directorate of Media and Strategy, which was signed by its Chairman, Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman and copies were made available to newsmen on Tuesday, declared that the government house source which crave anonymity, said that Aregbesola had given verbal directive to the new State Commissioner for Health, Dr Rafiu Isamotu to make all the ambulances in the custody of State Ministry of Health and Hospital Management board available for electoral purposes.
The statement has it that the same directive was also given to the State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Bola Ilori who was inner member of the Aregbesola’s Planning Committee of the Bye-Election, to release all the refuse vehicles in the Ministry of Environment for the same purpose ahead of Saturday Osun west Bye-Election.
It enjoyed the good people of the State to be vigilant by exposing and reporting any suspected movement of ambulance and refuse vehicles before and during the forthcoming bye-election in the State to the security agents, noting that all the effort of Mr. Aregbesola to rig the bye-election would be thwarted by the people of the Zone.
According to the statement, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola has been hell bent in rigging the forthcoming bye-election in favour of his anointed candidate, Mudasiru Hussein, with the collaboration of the few bad elements in the electoral umpire and security operatives in order to thwart the wishes of the people of the Senatorial district, advising the electoral officials and security personnel deployed for the bye-election to remember the outcome of 2015 general elections and River State bye-election by letting their conduct during the poll, be of apolitical and professionalism.
It therefore urged all the security agents deployed to monitor the election to be at alert before, during and after the bye-election by not allowing any miscreants to disrupt the peaceful conduct of the election, urging that anything capable of breaching the peace and orderliness of the conduct of the poll should be nipped in the bud.