Ondo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, have petitioned the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Bolaji Salami, urging him to investigate an allegation of electoral fraud made by a former Secretary to the State Government, Sunday Abegunde.
Abegunde, who resigned from his position last week, had said in an interview claiming that he and some others rigged the election to ensure victory for Akeredolu in the 2016 governorship election.
APC and Akeredolu through their lawyer, Mr Femi Emodamori, have, therefore, asked the police commissioner to investigate Abegunde’s claim.
In the petition dated July 14, 2020, the APC said Abegunde’s allegations were diametrically spurious, false, reckless, senseless and criminal.
The petition read in part, “Consequently, we have the instruction of our clients to call on your office to set all the necessary machineries under your control as the Commissioner of Police in motion, to unravel the truth or falsehood in the allegation(s) of Abegunde, by conducting a thorough investigation into the allegation in this petition.”
The petition added that in the event that the investigation revealed that the allegation(s) were false, “we demand the immediate prosecution of Abegunde for the criminal offence of publication of defamatory matter, in contravention of Section 375 of the Criminal Code, and punishable with two years’ imprisonment, as well as any other offence for which he may be found culpable.”