Press Statement
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the confession by the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that its card readers
were being circumvented, confirms its position that the Kogi and Bayelsa
governorship elections, as well as the Kogi West Senatorial election,
were all manipulated and therefore fraudulent.
The party adds that the confession by two INEC commissioners; Festus
Okoye and Haruna Mohammed on Wednesday, that the card readers were
circumvented in elections conducted by the commission did not come to it
as a surprise.
The PDP had always held that no matter how much falsehood appears to
thrive, the truth will always catch up with it.
The confession by the commission vindicates the position of the PDP and
majority of Nigerians that there were manipulations, alterations and
circumventing of genuine data captured by the card readers and that
actual results transmitted from polling units were tampered with.
The admission also brings to light why INEC had no convincing defence at
the tribunal in the face of overwhelming discrepancies in the figures it
declared in the Presidential poll.
It is instructive to note that the confession by INEC has not only
vindicated our party, it has placed a huge burden on the Chairman of
INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
It is indeed unfortunate that INEC can suddenly claim that it has just
realized that the card readers have lost steam in our electoral process
after they have been used to manipulate voting processes.
Prof. Yakubu is now faced with the burden of how our electoral system
has been corrupted by the manipulations in his INEC, all in the bid to
serve group, rather than national interest.
The INEC Chairman should accept his failures and vacate office without
further delay. This is because there is no way Nigerians can continue to
repose confidence in the commission under his watch.
Of course, not under an electoral commission that condones the invasion
of polling units, suppression of voters and stuffing of snatched ballot
boxes; an INEC that cancels results in places where election held
peacefully while announcing fabricated results allocated to its favored
political party as valid votes.
The PDP totally rejects attempts by INEC to shift the blames for its
failures to other political parties. It is on record that our party had
consistently pointed to infractions created and allowed by INEC to
facilitate rigging in elections.
While calling on Nigerians to remain calm, the PDP charges Prof. Yakubu
and the INEC leadership under him to do the needful by vacating offices
to save our electoral system from complete collapse.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
