Ondo Election: PDP campaign cautions INEC on use of Zpad

By Tunde Opalana

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Campaign Council for Ondo Governorship election has cautioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to compromise the credibility of the coming October 10, 2020 Ondo governorship election with the contemplation of using the unreliable Zpad technology in the voter accreditation process, Daily Times gathered.

The party recalled that the Zpad technology had failed during a test-run deployment for voter accreditation in the Nasarawa bye-election; a situation that informed its rejection by INEC for voter accreditation in the September 19 Edo state governorship election, where it was only used to assist in direct uploading of results to INEC’s virtual portal.

In a statement on Thursday by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party urged INEC to limit the Zpad technology to the purpose for which it has helped the commission to attain integrity as witnessed in the Edo governorship election.

“Our campaign also charges INEC to discountenance the blackmail by the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the replacement of the over 5000 card readers that were burnt by APC agents to frustrate the conduct of a credible governorship election in Ondo state

“We also call on INEC to note that the APC is bent on its plots to frustrate the commission’s efforts following clear indications that there is no way its candidate, the failed Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, can win in a free, fair and credible election.

“The PDP campaign, standing with the people of Ondo state, demands that the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, personally oversights the processes of recruitment of state polling officers.

“Our demand is predicated on information available to us that INEC officials detailed to handle the process are about being compromised by the APC to engage their members as INEC Adhoc staff with a view to using them to rig the election.

“For us in the PDP campaign, the irreducible minimum standard of the integrity for the Ondo election is to adapt the achievement attained by the commission in the September 19 Edo state governorship election.

“We want to inform INEC and all stakeholders that we will follow every process in the Ondo election to ensure that the Ondo people are not robbed of their legitimate votes at any level of the electoral process”.

The PDP campaign restated its demand that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, his ally Issac kekemeke and other APC agents be invited by INEC and security agencies and cautioned to desist from acts of violence like the one recently perpetrated in Oba-Akoko, where PDP candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, was attacked.

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