Benue PDP Denies Colluding With Alia To Rig Guma 1 State Constituency By-Election

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Benue State Chapter, on Friday, refuted a petition addressed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by a group, alleging that the party has colluded with Governor Hyacinth Alia to rig today’s by-election in the Guma 1 State Assembly Constituency.

This comes as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced it has engaged over 400 ad-hoc staff for the exercise.

The PDP Publicity Secretary, Bemgba Iortyom, in a statement, said, “The allegations are wholly false and should be dismissed in their entirety, adding that the allegation is the handiwork of the party’s opponents who fear an imminent resounding victory for its candidate in the election.”

The petitioners alleged that “the governor has made available the sum of N100 million to the PDP and also imported thugs from across the state to help rig the election in favour of the PDP candidate.

“PDP understands that its opponents in the election have a reason to fear their impending defeat, given the quality of campaigning the party and its candidate have undertaken in the six council wards of the Guma 1 State Constituency.”

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The party urged the people of the Guma 1 State Constituency to join hands and work towards ensuring a free and fair conduct of the by-election.

Meanwhile, INEC in the state has said that non-sensitive materials have been sent to Gbajimba, headquarters of the Guma local government area, in preparation for today’s by-election.

The Public Relations Officer of the Commission, Terkaa Andyar, who disclosed this in a telephone interview with our correspondent, said no fewer than 400 ad-hoc staff have been trained for the exercise.

Regarding the security arrangements put in place, Mr. Andyar said, “We had a security meeting here under the group of agency consultative on election security. All security chiefs in the state were around and mapped out modalities for the security architecture of the election, and they met with the Commissioner of Police to finalise issues.”