August 13, 2018
Press Statement
PDP Indicts INEC Over PVCs Allegedly Found In Daura’s Home
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the silence by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the alleged discovery of
thousands of its Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) at the private residence
of President Muhammadu Buhari’s kinsman, the sacked Director General of
the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura, has indicted the
commission and places a huge doubt over its integrity and capacity to
conduct a free and fair election.
The party charges the National Assembly to immediately commence
investigation into the veracity of this allegation.
The PDP notes that since the news of the sordid discovery broke, neither
the INEC Chairman nor any other officer of the commission, had offered
any explanation to Nigerians, a development that suggests the
commission’s complicity in the allegation.
The PDP says Prof. Mahmood should stop playing the ostrich and
immediately come out clear and inform Nigerians how thousands of
electoral materials as sensitive as PVCs, under his watch, found its way
to the custody of a kinsman of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
presidential aspirant.
Already, Nigerians are aware that a blood relation of President Buhari
is in charge of operations in INEC.
On account of this established relationship between President Buhari and
this INEC official, Mahmood owes Nigerians explanation as to the source
of the PVCs allegedly found in possession of Daura.
Nigerians and the international community can now see how INEC, under
Prof. Yakubu Mahmood has completely compromised the integrity of our
electoral process, including frustrating genuine voters from accessing
their voters cards, which the public now knows are being warehoused in
homes of APC chieftains with the view to using them to allocate fake
election results for President Buhari.
The PDP urges Nigerians to hold Prof. Mahmood directly responsible for
this ignoble development, particularly, given that his INEC has been
indicted of other various infractions tailored to undermine free and
fair elections in 2019, including secretly creating of illegal 30,000
pulling units in remote areas through which they plan to fabricate
figures and declare fake results in favour President Buhari.
This is in addition to the refusal of INEC under Prof. Mahmood to clean
up its register and remove the host of underage voters which it used to
rig elections for the APC in President Buhari’s home state of Katsina
last weekend.
Nigerian are aware that INEC refused to involve other stakeholders in
its investigation of the presence of underage voters in its register,
and had also refused to make its findings public, following documented
facts supporting the existence of minors in its register, particularly
in Katsina, Kano and Kaduna states.
The PDP charges the public to note the efforts by INEC to conceal these
manipulations of our electoral process in the run up to a major general
elections and hold Prof. Mahmood responsible for them all.
Finally, the PDP urges the National Assembly to look into the extent of
involvement of Prof. Yakubu Mahmood in this clear effort to undermine
the integrity of the 2019 general elections.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
