The Mimiko Campaign Organisation (MCO) has alerted on the influx of dangerous armed thugs brought into Ondo State by the leaders of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) ahead of final rally of the Party pleading with Nigerians to prevail on these people to kindly leave the State with their thugs when going back to their bases.

MCO, while alleging that the ACN leaders, in exercise of their desperation to capture Ondo State at all cost, a boast which it said was becoming a mirage on a daily basis, had imported thugs into the State for clandestine purposes, called for security backup in the interest of the innocent masses.

Specifically, the MCO enjoined the security operatives in the State to be ready to flush these thugs out of the State in line with President Goodluck Jonathan’s directive at the weekend that thugs must not be allowed to take over the State ahead of the election.

A statement by the MCO’s Director of Publicity and Media Relations, Mr Kolawole Olabisi said it was sad that despite the assurances given by the Presidency that this election would be free and fair, ACN had continued to bring in thugs to intimidate the people with the mindset to rig.

“From Lagos, they have imported thugs into Ondo State and among those already on ground. Other tough boys from Ekiti, Osun, Oyo and Ogun are to join to compliment the efforts of Lagos ‘boys’ for the Operation Capture Ondo. “Indeed, it is imperative to note that some of the ‘boys’ on ground are guests to ACN chieftains in Ondo State while some use fake names to stay in hotels and they change hotels to avoid suspicion while the big ones among them traverse Ondo State cities with police details and in exotic cars,” the statement disclosed.

According to MCO, the plan of the ACN leaders was to leave these thugs behind till Election Day and use them to scare away voters, hijack voter ballot boxes and disrupt election in areas they know they are not popular and also to protect votes where they think they are popular.

”We have it on good authority that these agents of intimidation and harassment have been thoroughly trained for the job.”

The MCO while disclosing that this was the highlights of a meeting held in the house of the ACN leader last Friday in Lagos where arrangements were concluded to deploy trained photographers from his media outfits who are to pose as members of civil society organisations whose sole mission would be to snap picture where there are crisis or in areas where they will deliberately cause commotion.

“This was in preparation for their second option which is to go to the Election petition. But to qualify for this option, they need to come second, hence their desperation. And to make this a reality, the ACN leader has instructed   television and raido stations owned by him, and few loyalists on face book and other social media whose main job on Election Day would be to be feeding the public with concocted election results or figures.

“In the light of this we can only appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make an emphatic and unequivocal statement stopping unauthorized source from announcing result, “the MCO stated.

The MCO therefore urged the security operatives to rise up to the occasion by combing the nooks and crannies of Ondo State to fish out these undesirable elements who have been surreptitiously brought into the State for clandestine purposes.

“We want to appeal to the whole world to be aware of the antics of the leaders of ACN who merely mouth their party’s mantra of ‘democracy for justice’ which makes no meaning to them at all as their posturing have revealed.

“They have boasted to capture Ondo State and now that their plans are being thwarted by the immense popularity of Dr Olusegun Mimiko, the incumbent Governor, they have resorted to series of evil plans to rig the election but by the grace of God they will fail.

We hereby called on the security operatives in the state to help arrest this ugly trend. They want to rig by harassing, intimidating and bribing voters in their desperation to win at all cost.

“But as we have said, let the Pharaohs of today note that in Ondo State, they will meet their Red Sea. A word is enough for the wise,” MCO warned.