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Tag: PDP

  • PDP alleges INEC plans to rig

    THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday claimed to have uncovered plots by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig the forthcoming general elections in favour of President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Its claim came barely hours after the Federal Government accused the opposition party of targeting INEC and the police for attack  to prejudge the polls.

    The elections are scheduled for February 16 (presidential and National Assembly) and March 2 (governorshipm and House of Assembly).

    According to the main opposition party, INEC has been taking directives from the Presidency and the APC on how to manipulate the electoral process at various levels. But the PDP did not show any proof of its claims.

    Its spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan, accused the electoral body of having collected a list of people who will serve as electoral officials, including ad-hoc staff and returning officers at the polling units, from APC governors and candidates, across the federation.

    Alleging that the directive was dished out to INEC by the Presidency, the PDP claimed to be privy to how the lists were populated with members of the ruling party and agents of its candidates.

    Ologbondiyan said: “The PDP vehemently rejects this plot, which is tailored to ensure institutional manipulation of the electoral process, including accreditation, voting and collation of results at the polling units, which is the base of the elections.

    “The PDP holds that by following the directive of the APC in such dubious rigging scheme, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, has violated Section 29 (1) of the Electoral Act (as amended) and shows that he is in clear deficit of the required political will to conduct a credible, free and fair election.”

    The PDP demanded that INEC should, within 48 hours, publish the list of all officials and ad hoc staff that will play any  role in the election at all levels for verification by stakeholders.

    According to the party, any delay or refusal by INEC to publish the list with 48 hours would be a clear acceptance that it has been compromised.

    He said: “The PDP wants Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to note that the fate of our nation lies in his hands.”

  • 2019 poll: PDP urges security agencies to be neutral

    The National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus has admonished the nation’s security agencies to safeguard the unity of the country by being neutral in all their operations regarding the general elections.

    The party chair said the PDP was in possession of credible intelligence that some security operatives were being hired by the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) to connive with some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to manipulate the election in their favour.

    Secondus, who addressed a crowd of party supporters in Gusau, Zamfara State on Monday at the PDP presidential rally, said that there were still some good patriotic operatives who do their jobs professionally.

    The party chairman advised the security operatives to be guided by the country’s constitution, saying that any bias roles from them in the coming elections could plunge the country into major crisis.

    Prince Secondus said the endorsement of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar by the Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Northern Elders Forum, the Pan Niger Delta Forum and leaders of the Middle Belt Elders Forum, showed clearly where the country was heading to in the upcoming elections.

    Read Also: No rift over campaign funding, says PDP

    “By that endorsement, which APC is refusing to accept as coming from the people, Nigerians of all divides have spoken that the APC administration can no longer continue”, the party chair added.

    Secondus assured that Atiku will not fail the nation, as, according to him, he has been tested and tried and found to be well equipped for the challenges of the country.

    He added that a PDP presidency will restore all the collapsed industries in Zamfara and other states, with a view to giving jobs to the people and ensuring adequate security.

    Also speaking at the rally, Atiku told the crowd that he would give them the airport they requested for, adding however that what they needed most was peace and security, which he promised to address with all seriousness.

    Atiku also assured the people that he would rebuild the Malori Dam and to also reactivate industrial and agricultural activities in the state.

    Prominent PDP chieftains at the rally included former Governors of Kano, Niger and Kogi States, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Babangida Aliyu and Idris Wada respectively.

    A former National Security Adviser (NSA), General Mohammad Alyiu Gusau (rtd) also attended the rally.

  • PDP exposes INEC’s ‘rigging’ plans

    The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has alerted of alleged fresh plots by the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig the 2019 general elections in favour of President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    According to the main opposition party, INEC has been taking directives from the Buhari Presidency and the APC on how to manipulate the electoral process at various levels.

    Addressing newsmen in Abuja Monday, spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, accused the electoral body of having collected a list of people that will serve as electoral officials, including ad-hoc staff and returning officers at the polling units, from APC state governors and candidates, across the federation.

    Stating that the directive was handed to INEC by the Presidency, the PDP claimed to be privy to how the lists were populated with APC members and agents of the APC candidates, after clearance by the APC leaders in various states.

    Ologbondiyan said, “The PDP vehemently rejects this wicked plot by the Buhari Presidency, which is tailored to ensure institutional manipulation of the electoral process, including accreditation, voting and collation of results at the polling units, which is the base of the elections.

    Read Also: We’re ready for polls, INEC reassures

    “The PDP holds that by following the directive of the APC in such dubious rigging scheme, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, has violated section 29 (1) of the Electoral Act (as amended) and shows that he is in clear deficit of the required political will to conduct a credible, free and fair election.

    “This is especially in the light of the boasting by agents of the Buhari Presidency and the APC to give the INEC chairman what they describe as the ‘Onnoghen treatment, and frame him, if he fails to comply with their rigging plans”.

    The PDP demanded of INEC to, within 48 hours, publish the list of all officials and ad hoc staff that will play any form of role in the election at all levels for verification by stakeholders.

    The party insisted that any delay or refusal by INEC to publish the list with 48 hours would be a clear acceptance that it has been compromised by the APC and this could lead to a very serious crisis with very dire consequences, as the PDP will never allow anybody to rig it out in the election.

    “The PDP wants Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to note that the fate of our nation lies in his hands. It is left to him to decide whether he would end as a national hero or as a villain.

    “Furthermore, the PDP calls on the international community to place the INEC Chairman, Directors and Commissioners in INEC responsible for this election on their watch list and proceed to impose travel ban on them as well as hold them directly responsible should there be any form of rigging in the February 16, 2019 Presidential elections.

    “Finally, the PDP directs all its members, teeming supporters and all well-meaning Nigerians across the nation to get ready to vote out President Buhari and protect their votes with all the energy available to them in the defence of our democracy and freedom as a people.

    “If President Buhari believes he is popular, he should make himself available for a free, fair, transparent and credible election. Anything short of this is completely unacceptable to Nigerians.

    “This is because Nigerians have already reached a consensus to vote out the incompetence, hunger, nepotism, pretense and manifest lies which the Buhari President truly represents”.

  • ‘Those endorsing Atiku are political jobbers’

    The Buhari Media Organization (BMO) has dismissed the Sunday’s endorsement of the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar by a group of regional blocks, describing it as a gathering of ‘shameless exponents of political adventurism.’

    The group said those endorsing the former Vice President are political jobbers, freelance activist and free-wheeling influence peddlers.

    It added it not surprising members of the socio-cultural groups the individuals claimed to be representing have already disowned the purported endorsement.”

    In a statement by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, the group said: “These are men who in spite of their advanced age are known to be political middlemen who have been out of job in the last three and a half years of the President Buhari administration.

    “That virtually all of them have been disowned by the core membership of the socio-cultural group they are supposed to be representing say a lot about their credibility.

    “One of them Pogo Bitrus, who claimed to be the President of the Middle Belt Forum is from Borno State but is presenting himself as the leader of the umbrella body of the people of North Central Nigeria, as the name suggests.

    Read Also: Endorsement of Atiku, a fraud, says APC

    “It is even on record that Bitrus was the leader of the Chibok community in Abuja but was removed because of his romance with the Jonathan administration at the height of the clamour for the return of the abducted Chibok girls in 2014.

    “As for the Afenifere, it is clear that the duo of Pa Ayo Adebanjo and Yinka Odumakin are using the name as influence-vending franchise on behalf of a group of people they have no mandate to represent”.

    BMO stated the arrowheads of the endorsement are PDP members and sympathisers who were also in the forefront of support for the failed re-election bid of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “This purported endorsement, which Atiku Abubakar is already celebrating, is nothing more than a case of party members backing their Presidential candidates by subterfuge, as is usual with the PDP.

    “Only recently we saw the PDP faction of Ohaneze led by John Nwodo endorse Atiku Abubakar, but few days later, the Anambra State Government and Ohaneze Youth Council led the deluge of dissenting voices which insisted that the people of South East should be allowed to vote in line with their conscience.

    “As for Ango Abdullahi, the leadership of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has questioned his right to speak for and on behalf of the Northern Region.

    “So these so-called Nigerian leaders and elders, led by a known PDP Chieftain, Edwin Clark that claimed they opted for their party’s Presidential candidate because he is ‘capable’, are clearly not representing anybody aside from themselves.

    “And just like in 2015, the fake endorsement is dead on arrival because the people who matter and who heartily received President Buhari at campaign rallies across the country are ready to make their votes count on February 16 by giving him a resounding victory”.

  • Two injured as PDP, APC supporters clash in Delta

    At least two persons were reportedly injured in Abraka community, Ethiope council area of Delta state on Monday during a clash between supporters of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Also, the week-long violence, which hit some parts of Effurun in Uvwie council area of the state of persisted on Monday as suspected political thugs engaged in gun battle in different axis of the area, spreading panic.

    The Nation gathered trouble started in Abraka, the host community to the Delta State University (DELSU), when a chieftain of the PDP identified as Elder Kelly was assaulted by suspected APC thugs.

    The incident led to a reprisal on some leaders of the APC in the community by suspected PDP thugs.

    According to a community source, the ensuing free-for-all left two persons with various degrees of injuries.

    The source said: “Followers of the PDP member felt he was assaulted by a member of the APC. This caused the clash between the parties.”

    When reached, spokesman of the Delta state police command, Mr Andrew Aniamaka (DSP), confirmed two casualties and injuries.

    However, he said the situation was under police control.

    Read Also: Obi is our son – Delta traditional rulers

    “Let me start by saying that as we speak, peace and calm have returned to Abraka.

    “I think it is important to tell our people that it is an election, not war, whoever wins eventually is still a Delta person. There really no need for all these violence,” Aniamaka said.

    At Effurun, the supremacy battle among political thugs loyal to the APC and the PDP continued on Monday around Jakpa junction, Effurun Market, Orhumarho and the adjoining areas.

    The development shut businesses with residents of the area stricken with fear.

    A community source informed The Nation that gun-wielding thugs were running after each other in the area, shooting sporadically and causing panic in the area.

    Although no casualty was reported on Monday, a resident of Uti area, off PTI Road informed of consistent police harassment of unharmed members of the public.

    He narrated how a policeman shot a resident who went to draw money from an ATM machine in the leg.

  • No rift over campaign funding, says PDP

    The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has denied rift among its leaders over the handling of campaign funds, describing media reports on the alleged rift as laughable, infantile and diversionary.

    A statement Monday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, accused unnamed agents of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) of having sponsored the said report.

    The party said for the APC and agents of the Buhari campaign to descend to the level of fabricating stories to create a non-existent scenario, showed that the APC and the Buhari Presidency have finally come to their wits end and are now suffering a pre-defeat trauma.

    The statement said, “The PDP is aware that the Buhari Presidency and the APC have become so frustrated over their dwindled electoral fortune in the face of the soaring popularity of the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar that they are now attempting to inject crisis into the PDP campaign in order to divert public attention from their own failures and rejection.

    “For President Buhari’s information, the Atiku Abubakar campaign is owned and driven by the Nigerian public and will never have the kind of rifts that have been ravaging the APC campaign, where their leaders, including their National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, went on the run from security agencies over allegations of siphoning funds from aspirants and candidates.

    Read Also: PDP to Buhari: You can’t rig this election

    “Unlike the Buhari Campaign Organization, which is practically a den of looters and sanctuary of persons indicted for corruption, which have been running its campaigns with looted funds, the Atiku Presidential campaign have been running a transparent and people-driven campaign, anchored on the volunteered support of overwhelming majority of Nigerians”.

    The main opposition party counseled President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC to note that their resort to smear campaign will not help their cause.

    Nigerians, the PDP said, would never be distracted from their collective resolve to vote in Atiku Abubakar as the next President.

    The party restated its confidence in Atiku’s proven capacity and will to return the country to the path of national cohesion and economic prosperity.

  • PDP kicks against INEC’s central collation centre

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has kicked against against a central collation centre set up by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the collation of results in the 2019 general elections.

    The national chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, has asked INEC to dismantle the centralized collation centre saying it’s tantamount to rigging the election even before the votes are cast.

    Speaking at the PDP presidential rally in Kebbi on Sunday, the party chair said that the creation of central collation centre by the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu was meant to serve the needs of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in a bid to manipulate the polls.

    Secondus said that Prof Yakubu has succumbed to pressure from the APC to have a central collation centre away from the usual practice in the past, just to creat room for rigging.

    The party chair said that names of people who will handle the collation are being handed down to INEC whose leadership appears to be lacking in strong will to resist pressure from the APC.

    He accused the electoral body of secretly compiling names of APC sympathizers, stressing that the leadership of INEC has succumbed to pressure from APC.

    Prince Secondus reiterated his earlier position that Nigerians will not accept a rigged election and will do everything humanly possible to resist the thwarting of the will of the people.

    He added that the APC has been rejected by Nigerians because they were given the mandate to change the country for good but their three years reign has ended up breeding hunger, poverty and unemployment in an unprecedented manner in the land.

    Addressing the gathering of party supporters, Secondus said, “The candidate we are presenting to you has all it takes to run a solid administration. He has been tested and tried both in private and public sectors and he will provide food on your table as well as create jobs for youths of Nigeria.

    The PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, also assured the people that a PDP Presidency will ameliorate their suffering, create jobs, and end their hunger and insecurity.

    The Senate President and the Director General of the party’s campaign council, Dr. Bukola Saraki, urged the people to kick out poverty by voting PDP in all the elections.

    The Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal who also attended the rally, urged the people to vote right by electing PDP candidates all the way.

  • 2019: No rational Nigerian will vote for APC,PDP – Sowore

     

    The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) and publisher of Sahara Reporters Omoyele Sowore, has said that there is no rational human being in the country today that would willingly cast vote for the two major parties (APC and PDP) in the imminent elections.

    He said this while referencing past years of stagnation under the watchful eyes of the two parties, who are unrepentant masterminds of the country’s political and economic doldrums.

    He premised statement on their bad antecedents saying: “no Nigerian in the right frame of mind would vote an oppressor to power.”

    He further advised Nigerians to forget about the rented crowd at rallies of the major parties and rather focus on the need for courage in upstaging the horrible forces that have kept them in darkness. He counseled the citizens to brace up and take the bull by the horn, emphasizing the need to vote for conscience rather than allow votes to be swayed by pecuniary gains that have been consistently used to bait the electorates.

    “Every trick in the political world has been played and outplayed by the political class.” He began. “Nobody is carried away by money anymore; nobody is swayed by rented crowd out there, and there is the silent majority that has made a decision this time around to vote their conscience. If the elections are free and fair, there is no rational human being who will vote for the two major parties this time and what that means is that, we have the brightest chance.”

    Sowore spoke primarily to the young people of Nigeria. They consist of the largest demographic in the country and it is with them that the future rests.  He charged them with removing the old guard who have deprived them of basic amenities and made them residents of the poverty capital of the world. He encouraged young Nigerians not to give up in the face of hardship and despair but rather, they make vital efforts to reverse the status quo.

    “I understand there is a lot of anxiety and despondency” Sowore said while acknowledging that many people are acutely depressed about the country. “I mean– clinically depressed. That’s the truth, but, that is exactly why things must change because it is either we give in or brace ourselves up for a struggle like this in providing the liberation that we need. And the reason this must happen is because we have nowhere else to go. For those of us who are outside the country, we have seen other parts of the world and found out there is nothing as good as having a country that works and you come back so much energized considering you know that only less than one percent of the population is holding the country to ransom.”

    He said that the clarion call to redeem Nigeria must be heeded by all youths who intend having a thriving country they would be proud to call their own, and to have such a prosperous country, the youths that constitute major part of the electorates must speak in unity of purpose regarding voting his candidacy to power, adding that, he is poised to effect a seismic transformation to the country’s dwindling fortune.

    Speaking about his level of readiness to disrupt the political space, Sowore alluded his party’s monumental achievements since treading this path barely six months ago and issued sound warning to the old guard politicians that the 2019 elections won’t be business as usual. He said that, his party would use technology to demystify hitherto inscrutable election irregularities and table them as pieces of evidence to Nigerians and to the rest of the world.

    Read Also:Lagos is sure for APC, says Tinubu

     

    “The disruption has been done in the last nine months.” Sowore started. “I made a pronouncement in one of the first town hall meetings that, since I have disrupted the media I was going to disrupt the political space and, you can count the number of things that have happened since we started.”

    He reeled out both his personal achievements in the quest to effect transformation in  his environment beginning from when he was a student at the university of Lagos and what his party, the AAC, has attained within the short time of coming into existence.

    “You know the disruption has spread and is completed already.” He continued. “First, was that we wanted to demystify all the very powerful criminal institutions in politics and we have done that. We have demystified the power of money.  We have demystified the notion that Nigeria is complex and vague. We have demystified the notion of religion and ethnicity in the sense that, we have been able to travel round the country, get wide acceptance, under the same political party, young people from across all different ethnic groups and religious beliefs, nobody is thinking ethnicity and everybody is thinking humanity till now. We have disrupted the political process to the point that we are forcing conversations that ordinarily don’t happen to happen. We have disrupted it to the point that today; almost everybody is doing a townhall meeting, which had never been done before.”

    “Buhari was supposed to do one but he didnt. It was a townhall meeting, regardless.  Otherwise, it would have been their parachute rallies, dropping their wares and what have you but they are being forced to answer questions. We have created a narrative around the efficacy and efficiency of a vibrant youthful political class in the country.  We have disrupted the notion that only big parties can discuss elections.”

    “We created a party that is less than six months old. However, one of the most popular political parties in Nigeria today is AAC and it’s just six months old. So, a number of theories have been disrupted and the disruption process is complete. We are waiting to ensure it delivers victory to a disruptor in two weeks’ time.” He rounded off.

    Sowore’s emergence as the presidential candidate of the AAC few months ago seems to have given hope to many Nigerians about a third force that was consistently gossiped as viable alternative to the Peoples’ Democratic Party and the ruling All Peoples’ Congress, two parties that have been likened to the two sides of a coin. Perhaps, the long awaited revolution in the political firmament would take place if the candidacy of Omoyele Sowore is voted into powers.

     

  • Presence of Niger Republic governors at Buhari’s Kano rally must be probed —PDP

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is fuming over the alleged presence of some Niger Republic nationals at President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign rally in Kano on Thursday.

    The party yesterday branded the Nigeriens as mercenaries and said their presence at the APC rally was a threat to national security.

    But the Director, Field Operation of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, said the presence of two governors from Niger Republic at the event will have no bearing on the February 16 election.

    He said the men might have come as a result of their belief in the achievements of the  President.

    Addressing reporters yesterday in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, claimed that the APC had brought ‘miscreants’ into the country to aid it in winning the election.

    He said: “The APC and the Buhari Presidency must immediately explain the roles being played by Issa Moussa, Governor of Zinder, and his counterpart from Maradi, Zakiri Umar, both of the Niger Republic, who were sighted decked in the attire and official logos of the APC.

    “Our security agencies must immediately investigate and lay in the public domain the circumstances leading to their presence which more or less confirms that the APC has lost all domestic credibility and has assumed a desperate mode.

    “The presence of the Niger Republic governors at President Buhari’s rally signposts a direct assault on the credibility of the presidential election.

    “This is particularly against the backdrop of INEC’s plans to allow Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in that country to vote in our elections, a situation that opens the way for aliens to infiltrate as IDPs and participate in our elections”

    The opposition party said its apprehension was accentuated by INEC’s recent mass creation of additional polling units which have not been properly designated and which may be deployed for the perpetuation of monumental electoral fraud.

    It said that in  2015, Kano State alone delivered 1.9 million votes to the APC presidential candidate in circumstances devoid of transparency and credulity.

    The party also expressed misgivings at a recent declaration by the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, that Kano would deliver five million votes to President Buhari in the 2019 election.

    According to the PDP, Ganduje’s declaration could be predicated on the unfettered opening of the nation’s international borders to foreign political interests.

    However, Ribadu answering reporters’ questions in Abuja yesterday at  a workshop for volunteers who will serve as canvassers for the party during its house-to-house campaign, said: “I don’t think there is anything wrong and I don’t think there is any crime committed on account of the presence of the Niger governors at the Kano rally.”

    He added: “It is a free world and it is the constitutional right of everyone to be where he wants to be.

    “You have no right to curtail anybody from doing what he wants to do. People from West Africa are free to move into Nigeria. We have a protocol or agreement that they don’t need a visa to come into this country.

    Read also: Buhari shifts Zamfara campaign rally

    “I know for sure that they don’t have the vote, but as a free West African who believes that someone has done extremely well, and decided to identify himself with what he believes in, I don’t think there is anything wrong and I don’t think there is any crime committed.

    “You cannot and you have no right as a Nigerian to stop them from exercising their fundamental right to identify with their friends.

    “Their presence may or may not have any impact on the re-election of the President, but they are entitled to it.

    “We have to guarantee their freedom because their presence is within the law and we don’t have right to stop them.”

    Also speaking at the event, the Director General of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Babatunde Irukera, said Buhari’s record of service will speak for him in the election.

    Irukera told the canvassers to show that they  have a government that is planting seeds of prosperity for our future.

    He said: “We have 500, 000 N-Power volunteers in 774 local government areas in the country. It is the very first of its kind.

    “There is no local government that you will go to that you will not see the N-Power volunteers. Market money, which is money that is given  to artisans, is the same thing in the 36 states and 774 local government areas.”

  • PDP asks INEC to sanction Buhari

    THE People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the Independent  National Electoral Commission (INEC) to sanction  President Muhammandu Buhari for allegedly bringing in people from outside the country to influence the election in his favour.

    Chairman of  PDP, Uche Secundus, made the call in Enugu during the PDP rally for election of the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and other candidates of the party in the 2019 elections. He accused Buhari of planning to influence the election in his favor and called on INEC to sanction Buhari over alleged plans to influence the election.

    He urged Enugu people to vote for a man (Atiku) that will not sleep on duty, adding “PDP is Enugu and Enugu is PDP” In his speech, Atiku urged Ndigbo not to miss the opportunity of producing the vice president, adding that vice president is from the South East.

    Read also: No cause for alarm over FG’s borrowing plan, says Finance Minister

    He therefore called on them to vote for him, saying the PDP has never failed the people of the South East. Present at the rally were Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, former governor of old Anambra State Jim Nwobodo, among others.