Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, alleged Wednesday that the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state was planning to scuttle its case at State Election Petition Tribunal.

This follows the filing of an election petition by the candidate of the party challenging the result of the October 20 Esan North east local government re-run election, which was declared in favour of the APC candidate.

State chairman of PDP, Dan Orbih, while briefing journalists in Benin, said that the party stumbled on a YouTube documentary where officials of Edo State government held a clandestine meeting at office of governor Adams Oshiomhole’s senior special assistant of special duties, government house, Benin City aimed at subverting justice in the petition.

According to Orbih, those present at the alleged meeting included Francis Ebare, commissioner for energy and water resources; Theophilos Afuda, senior special adviser to the governor on special duties; Douglas Usoh, member, Edo State Board of Internal Revenue; and Samuel Oboh, chairman Esan North east council area.

He explained that at the alleged meeting, 11 returning officers that conducted the election were briefed on what to say at the tribunal in the event that the PDP challenged the outcome of the election.

“We will forward the material downloaded from the internet to the Inspector General of Police, IGP, the state Commissioner of Police, CP, and the State Director of Directorate of State Security Service, DSS, to ensure that all those involved in the meeting were brought to book to serve as a deterrent to other who may want to take this evil course” he said.

“The revelation of this document of the meeting at Government House was posted on the u-tube by an aggrieved member of the APC. And we want to thank God for using the APC member to unearth the evil plan by the party on the Esan North-East LG re-run election, and we are going to resist this evil plan,” Orbih said.

Corroborating Orbih’s claim, the PDP chairmanship candidate in the election, John Yakubu, alleged that the returning oofficers were promised handsome rewards by the government should they stick to one story that they were harassed by PDP agents and were made to escape for their dear lives during the election.

Edo State commissioner for information and orientation, Loius Odion, while reacting to the allegation said “these guys are simply irritants. If the PDP say something and government reacts, we are simply dignifying them. My simple answer is that initially one use to think that the PDP skill is living in denial. But I don’t know that they have the skill in video or phantom film tricks.

“This is yet another concoction by the PDP denying the new realities in Edo. We want to challenge them to bring to public scrutiny, the video film. We challenged them to petition the security agencies as they have promised. We shall never be distracted. It is a big lie and they should go to court if they have any issue and urged Edo people to disregard them.