The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has said that the 16th November Ondo governorship election was marred by vote buying mostly perpetrated by the All Progressives Congress.
The CUPP said this this on Sunday in a statement by its spokesperson, Mark Adebayo. It accused the administration of President Bola Tinubu of conceptualising a “dangerous agenda of state capture via a tendency towards turning Nigeria into a one-party state.”
The statement read: “The governorship election conducted in Ondo State on Saturday was a poor excuse for an election. The fundamental elements of a free, fair, democratic, and credible election were glaringly missing.
“The widespread vote buying, especially by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the bias demonstrated by the security agencies who are supposed to curb such a menace was an eyesore.
“It is evident that the APC at both the national and subnationals has performed woefully on all indices of development and cannot win any fairly contested election. But the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has conceptualized a dangerous agenda of state capture via a tendency towards turning Nigeria into a one-Party state prior to the 2027 general elections. Therefore, the Party has set in motion the machinery to turn Nigeria into a one-Party state.
“It is clear to all Nigerians that the APC is the Party that has elevated poverty, hunger and economic collapse into active state policy which has destroyed many businesses and crippled the capacity of Nigerians to live a good life. Insecurity has never been as bad as it now obtains nationwide, inflation is at all-time high of 34.7% and still rising, youth unemployment and the phenomenon of out-of-school children has attained epidemic proportions under a government that has proven not only grossly incompetent but also egregiously wicked and unconcerned about the plights of regular Nigerians and swims in the slimy ocean of corruption and criminal extravagance, just to mention a few of its horrible records.
“Under these circumstances, a Party like the APC cannot win a free and fair election. But here we are, as it was done in Edo state, so it was orchestrated in Ondo State to force a fait accompli on the people by state force.
“This is not democracy, but a deliberate policy of state capture by antidemocratic forces who are determined to undermine and ultimately destroy our democracy as they did in the first and second Republics.
“As opposition, we remain vigilant and determined to ensure that we do not allow antidemocratic forces bring down our country by scuttling our democratic development as a sovereign nation. All hands shall be on deck to rescue Nigeria and Nigerians from the shackles of oppression, repression and the corrosive influence of obnoxious politicking.”
