PDP alleges plan by INEC to design special card readers, result sheets for ruling party

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alerted of alleged advanced rigging plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in collaboration with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to manipulate the elections in 2019.

National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, who disclosed this yesterday while hosting the election team of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) led by Mohammad Conteh at the party’s national campaign headquarters in Maitama, Abuja, said that manipulation of election in 2019 would be a recipe for crisis in the country and the INEC chairman would be held accountable.

But the electoral body has dismissed the rigging allegation as untrue, adding that the opposition party was raising false alarm.

Chief Press Secretary to the chairman of the INEC, Rotimi Oyekanmi, in a response sent to The Guardian said: “There is no iota of truth in the allegation being made by the PDP. The Commission is focusing on preparations for the 2019 general elections at the moment and will not join issues with any political party, especially the one that has perfected the art of raising false alarms.”

Secondus alleged that the commission used the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states as rehearsal to practise their rigging strategy for 2019, saying: “They have finished their rigging arrangements with preloaded cards and special election result sheets all doctored to favour the ruling APC. The INEC chairman has no strong will to follow our electoral laws and constitution as well as the laid down international standards in his processes towards 2019 and we want to let the world know this before it happens.”

In the same vein, the ruling APC has accused the opposition PDP of misleading Nigerians with fake news.

The APC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, said it was unfortunate that the PDP and its discredited agents had continued to deploy the loathsome strategy of fake news, misinformation and distortion of facts as focal campaign strategies for the 2019 elections.

It says the consequences of fake news are often dire as it inflames perceived divisions in our communities, fuels hate-speech, leads to violence and distorts democratic processes in the country.

According to it, “while the APC is not surprised at the PDP’s typical theatrics in an attempt to evade scrutiny for its 16 years of mis-governance, it is instructive to the electorate that no lessons have been learnt by the prodigal party.