The Young Progressives Party, YPP, has accused the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of giving $5,000 to each of the 329 wards across the state to buy votes, which saw Pastor Umo Eno as the winner of the 2023 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State.

YPP was the only party that refused to sign the result sheet presented by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, at Udo Udoma, Uyo, on Sunday, where Eno was declared the governor-elect, with claims that the elections were massively rigged, coupled with violence and killings.

The YPP Secretary, Amb. Kelvin Umo, addressing a press conference at the party’s secretariat, Uyo, on Monday, alleged that it was on record that PDP agents were seen openly paying people N10,000 to buy their votes.

According to him, “there was a clear deployment of monetary inducement as a weapon against the poverty-stricken voters of the state. Credible intelligence suggests that the state government and the PDP agents paid about N1.3 million per unit across the 4,353 units in the state and $5,000 to each ward across the 329 wards in the state as part of their vote-buying strategy.”

Umoh described the election, especially in Eket Senatorial District, as shambolic, saying that most of the polling units’ results were pre-written.

He also accused the PDP state government of deploying thugs dressed in police, military, and paramilitary uniforms to allegedly molest, kill, maim, and chase away YPP agents and supporters in the polling units as well as the Registration Area Centers across the state.

Umoh further alleged that the Electoral Act and guidelines were not followed, noting that at the time the INEC was announcing the results in the state, more than 50% of the results were not uploaded.

He said that elections were hijacked to individuals’ homes where the results were allegedly manipulated, saying that appending his signature would mean consent.

Citing cases of violence and killings during the polls, Umoh highlighted the alleged killing of Mr. Abraham Bassey Ekpenyong at the INEC office, the physical attacks on supporters of YPP at Atan Offot, Uyo, and the hijacking of electoral materials in the full glare of foreign observers, as well as killings at Etim Ekpo and other LGAs.

However, the Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Borono Bassey, in a statement, said the YPP was exhibiting a post-election lamentation defeat.

He noted that international observers, the media, and other election stakeholder groups and monitors had toured all 4,353 polling units across the state, but in their various reports they had not mentioned incidences of infractions that had formed the basis of the allegations that the YPP and APC have struggled to peddle.

In his statement tagged “YPP’s final cry of defeat and the imminent evaporation of mushroom political parties,” the Publicity Secretary described as an insult on Akwa Ibomites the allegation by YPP that their massive votes for PDP was not a reflection of their will.

Bassey said it was untrue that some PDP chieftains mentioned by the YPP condescended to hijacking election materials to their homes for manipulations, saying that those people are strong grassroots mobilizers who have earned the support of their people.

He said the party will give the necessary support to the chieftains accused by the YPP in a situation where they want to institute a libel suit against the YPP Secretary.

He said, “Our Party, however, takes very serious exception to the frontal defamatory remarks made by the YPP on these respected chieftains of our party and do hereby declare that we would stand by them and offer them all the necessary support should they wish to initiate litigation bordering on libel against the Secretary of the defeated YPP, to prevail on him to prove in court the grave allegations he made in the press conference.”