Calls for free, fair, transparent poll
The Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ) has faulted the Attorney General for the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami on his letter to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the said letter, Malami had advised INEC to postpone the general elections in Zamfara State, to accommodate a ruling of the Sokoto Division of the Court of Appeal, purportedly directing the electoral body to allow the Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) field candidates for the upcoming elections.
INEC had barred the state chapter of the APC from fielding candidates for elections for submitting names of its candidates after the expiration of the deadline prescribed by the Electoral Act.
However, after series of legal rigmarole initiated by the leadership of the Zamfara APC, the Appeal Court purportedly gave the go ahead to the chapter to submit the lists of its candidates to INEC for the governorship and state assembly elections scheduled to hold on March 2.
But in a swift reaction on Thursday, the National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus described the AGF’s letter to INEC as part of APC’s design to arm-twist INEC and the judiciary to take illegal actions in their favour.
Addressing a news conference at the Legacy House, the party’s Abuja campaign office, Secondus said what the AGF was seeking is not backed by law.
According to the party chair, the AGF is an interested party in this matter and thus has no moral right to advice INEC.
Secondus said, “The inability of the APC to field candidates due to self-inflicted crisis when other parties did within the stipulated period for the election is not covered by section 38 & 39 of the Electoral Act 2010 which the AGF is relying on for his dubious advice.
“I, therefore, call on INEC to follow the dictates of the law and continue in its plan to achieve a credible election”, adding that the 2019 general elections, more than any other in the past, provide an opportunity for the country to get on the right path.
“The challenge that we now face is one of expectation. Those entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the expression of the people’s will is made manifest, have time and again failed to demonstrate good faith. We expect better than we are getting,
“A sick narrative has emerged, one of systemic and systematic rigging, manipulation of the true record of the voters register and a cabal you can no longer trust with the trajectory and growth of our democracy and nation.
“This is the evidence of bad faith by those managing the election and the government of the day”, Secondus said.
The party chair accused the electoral body of failing to clean up its register of voters before it published same, against the practice under previous INEC administrations.
He also faulted the voting arrangements put in place by the electoral body whereby accreditation and voting will go on simultaneously.
It’s a departure from arrangements in previous elections where voters were first accredited and allowed to vote only after the end of the accreditation exercise.
According to the party chairman, the new continuous voting regime this was meant to facilitate multiple voting by APC members in their numbers.
Also, Secondus alleged that the voter register compiled by INEC contained data of dead voters for whom Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) were printed and distributed nationwide.
Quoting official government data, the party chairman said the gross death rate in the country stood at 12.5 per 1000 lives, adding that from available evidence, over 1,050,051 dead persons would vote in the upcoming elections.
“The decision that dead voters will cast ballots has been taken by INEC and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The idea of ghost voters is consistent with the nature of this virtual President.
“There has been a coordinated approach to register foreigners as voters, mainly from Niger and Cameroon. That is why INEC has established so many polling units along the borders with Cameroon and Niger. That is despite the fact that population data did not justify the move”, Secondus said.
Speaking on Saturday’s presidential election, the party chairman cited multiple “intelligence sources” available to the PDP showing that the APC, in conjunction with INEC, through the ICT situation room, have concluded plans to manipulate the outcome of the election.
He said, “By deliberately corrupting the INEC voter’s register to induce voter suppression in PDP strongholds and operations areas with the aim of disenfranchising at least four voters through corrupting of their four names on the voters register.
“The strategy is to create artificial problems wherein at least four registered voters can be disfranchised in PDP strong hold areas. The target is to adequately limit the estimated members of PDP who would want to vote in their areas.
“There is a deliberate ploy to disrupt Internet services and jam cell tower coverage ostensibly to prevent Nigerians from covering the elections via social media.
“There is also confirmed intelligence showing that critical PDP players in this election are to be earmarked, arrested and quarantined to a particular location to give way for the elections to be rigged.
“The other intelligence available to the party also shows that some uniforms of para-military and military operatives, particularly the Army and Police, have been produced in large numbers for use by civilians during the voting period.
“To send faulty card reader machines to certain identified PDP strongholds and record a deliberate slow screening of voters to frustrate and discourage them.
“They have packaged large sums of foreign currency to induce voters and security and INEC operatives.
“We also have on good authority that all the electoral frauds via the ICT, which the APC has mapped out, are being coordinated by a highly placed government official (body bag) with the help of some foreigners inside an apartment in the government House and other locations in Kaduna state.
“We have deep respect for our security personnel who are sworn to protect and defend our constitution and the integrity of our nation. President Buhari administration however, is determined to subvert the impartiality of our security agencies.
“It has recently moved personnel to areas along the borders, where they will be employed to create violence, stuff ballots and aid non-Nigerians to vote in a predetermined manner”.
Secondus also alleged extravagant use of money at APC campaigns through advertisements, billboards and the use of state media as an instrument of the party, adding that the use of public resources for partisan purposes is unprecedented.
The chairman similarly faulted the decision by INEC not to transmit election results electronically, saying this was caused by the refusal of President Buhari to sign the law that would have made this possible.