Saturday election: Call parties to meeting now, PDP urges INEC

…Wants representatives of parties to supervise Electoral umpire’s work

Babatunde Opalana, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to summon a meeting of the political parties participating in the Presidential election immediately to appoint representatives drawn from the parties that will oversee their work. It also called on the National Peace Committee to prevail on the Federal Government and various agencies involved in the presidential election tomorrow to go the right way of free and fair elections. The National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, made the call on Thursday, in Abuja, during a press conference, expressing fear that a sick narrative has emerged, one of systemic and systematic rigging, manipulation of the true record of the voters register. The party also asked INEC to clean up their voters register and retain for accreditation and voting during the elections only credible voter’s register, while it called on the various security agencies to remain unbiased, fair and transparent on any matter concerning this election and also for them to stop unwarranted harassment and intimidation of opposition. These demands, according to Secondus, are based on discovery of certain infractions such as the Systemic Manipulation of the Voters Register and abuse of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs). “It is clear that INEC did not in fact do a cleanup of the register of voters before it published it. In previous INEC administrations this eventuality was mitigated by administrative arrangements wherein a voter did accreditation in the morning and voted in the afternoon – so if a voter wanted to vote twice, say at A and B, they would have to go to A and get accredited, then go to B and also get accredited, and then go back to A to vote and the then go to B to vote – an onerous regimen that prevented cultivating. In the new continuous voting regime this administrative support measure has been disposed of specifically to facilitate multiple voting by a huge number of APC voters. “The Voter’s register contains the data of dead voters. Permanent Voters Cards for dead voters were printed and distributed nationwide. Fellow Citizens, Government data shows that the gross death rate in Nigeria is 12.5 per 1000 lives. We have evidence that over 1,050,051 dead voters will vote in this election. The decision that dead voters will cast ballots has been taken by INEC and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, he said. The chairman also alleged manipulation of security agencies, saying: “As we prepare for the general election on Saturday, multiple intelligence sources available to us in PDP, shows that All Progressives Congress, APC, in conjunction with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, through their ICT situation room have concluded plans to manipulate the outcome of Saturday’s election in the followings ways. “By deliberately corrupting the INEC voter’s register to induce voter’s suppression in PDP’s strong hold 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 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 machine to certain identified PDP strong holds 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 have all witnessed the extravagant amounts displayed in this campaign by APC in advertisements, billboards and the use of State media as an instrument of the party. “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”. The PDP chairman charged Nigerians to be at alert, to guard their votes to ensure their wish for a new government is realised. “Stealing this election is stealing the future of the youth of Nigeria and stealing the future of this country. It will subvert the Promise of Nigeria. “However, the hour has now come that we call upon you citizens to do your duty and protect your right to a decent future. “If we allow the Government and INEC to continue on their way, we are guaranteed another false start, and tragically that means a Nigeria that does not work. A Nigeria that never leads. A Nigeria whose resources are wasted in perverted uses”, he said.