June 16, 2019
Press Statement
…Demands Prosecution of INEC Chairman
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) says that the fresh revelation in the European Union (EU) report
has further vindicated the PDP and millions of Nigerians, in our
position that the February 23 Presidential election was rigged to favour
President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The party notes that the revelations of manipulations as detailed in the
EU report further validates queries by majority of Nigerians that
President Buhari was not validly returned for a second term in office.
The world can now see that the PDP has not been crying wolf in insisting
that the election was outrightly rigged with the cancellation of
millions of PDP votes, alteration of results and allocation of
fictitious votes to the APC.
Nigerians are still in shock over the revelations by EU of how about 2.8
million votes were deliberately “cancelled without sufficient
accountability” and how several returning officers gave no reason for
the cancellations.
More shocking is the iniquity committed at the national collation
center, headed by the INEC Chairman, where the EU report exposed
inconsistent numbers, distortions and “a large discrepancy of “1.66
million more registered voters, as announced by INEC on 14 January,
compared to those announced by state returning officers during the
collation of presidential results.
Nigerians witnessed, on national TV, how professors and returning
officers were unable to reconcile result figures due to heavy
manipulations upon which INEC declared the APC winner.
The EU report has further exposed the iniquity committed by the Prof.
Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC by listing how ballot boxes were compromised,
how essential materials were missing, how “voter register was not always
ticked as required” and how “manual authentication procedures were not
correctly followed”.
The report also bared how figures on result forms did not reconcile, how
result forms were not publicly posted, how “result forms and smart card
readers were not packed in tamper-evident envelops as required”, in
addition to how the APC administration used security forces to
intimidate voters, aid violence against our members and muscled votes
for the APC
The PDP therefore commends the EU for the courage in exposing the evils
committed by the APC and INEC in the 2019 general elections.
Moreover, the report has further reinforced the confidence of millions
of Nigerians in our collective expectation of justice in the quest to
retrieve our stolen Presidential mandate at the tribunal.
The PDP insists that those in INEC, who perpetrated such crime against
our nation, in sabotaging the sanctity of our electoral processes to
frustrate the choice of Nigerians in a presidential election, must be
brought to book and made to face the wrath of the law.
Our party therefore urges Nigerians to remain calm as the truth about
the election continues to unfold while justice takes its course on the
matter.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
