The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) In Imo State have accused the incumbent govenor, Hope Uzodimma and APC of plotting to legalize vote buying in the Imo off-cycle governorship election which is slated to hold by November 11, this year.
The PDP revealed that Uzodimma have delegated members of APC to incessantly bombard Imo people with unsolicited phone calls, begging for votes and promising to financially reward them for each vote cast for APC.
This was made known to newsmen on Saturday, September 23, in a press statement signed by Ikenna Onuoha, the Director, Media and Publicity of Imo PDP Gubernatorial Campaign Council.
The press statement read in full; “The attention of the Peoples Democratic Party Gubernatorial Campaign Council in Imo state has been drawn to a clandestine move by the All Progressive Congress and Hope Uzodinma to legalize vote buying in the state.
“This time, Uzodinma is said to have delegated members of APC to incessantly bombard Imo people with unsolicited phone calls, begging for votes and promising to financially reward them for each vote cast for APC.
“It is shameful that Uzodinma is going about begging for the votes of Imo people after he flagrantly ignored them and instead, introduced harsh and obnoxious policies that are detrimental to their welfare.
“Our campaign council therefore queries Uzodinma’s morality in soliciting votes from Imo people now that it is clear to him that his political future is in serious danger having treated the people of the state with disdain and utter disregard.
“This is after Uzodinma and his supporters had boasted that the November 11 Governorship election would be a “walk-over, ostensibly, believing that their usual rigging mechanism would work. The question now is, if Uzodinma and APC are convinced that the election would be a walk-over for them, why then are they going about begging, and spending airtime bombarding the phone numbers of aggrieved Imo people without authorization?
“The PDP (Sam-Jones) Gubernatorial Campaign Council further enjoins Uzodinma and his outgoing APC administration to stop embarrassing themselves by going beggarly, after they had failed to apologize to Imo people for harassing, intimidating and molesting them at no provocation.
“The Sam-Jones Campaign team therefore calls on Imo people to ignore any unsolicited phone calls from these enemies of the state to avoid exposing their privacies to hackers who are desperate to retain power, even as security agencies have been briefed to fish out those behind this dastardly act and deal ruthlessly to serve as deterrent to others.”
