The All Progressives Congress, APC, alleged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has laid out plans to deploy political thugs and use cloned permanent voter cards, PVCs, to rig itself to victory in the 2019 general elections, starting from the Osun governorship election.
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena, made this claim in reaction to the directive by the PDP to all its presidential aspirants to move all their political machinery into Osun state within this period.
The statement reads: “When the APC learnt of the shocking disclosures, we initially doubted its veracity and dismissed it as one of the fake news in circulation, until further checks backed by media reports confirmed the statement was indeed issued by the PDP National Spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan.
“The PDP’s statement on Tuesday is particularly worrisome because it coincided with the situation field report we received of the PDP cloning Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) for use in the Osun governorship election.
“The PDP’s now public rigging plans is a red flag that require urgent probe by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and relevant security agencies. We also call on well-meaning Nigerians and civil society organisations to speak out and resist the PDP’s retrogressive plan which threatens our democracy.
“Perhaps the PDP needs to be reminded that our democracy is maturing and its crude election rigging methods such as ballot box snatching (recently displayed during last weekend by-election in Kogi state), announcement of concocted election results and other anomalies are no longer acceptable in our elections.
“We are confident that the good people of Osun will resist the PDP’s deployment to takeover Osun State by force. The people’s will; the people’s vote is supreme. It must be respected and defended. That is democratic, progressive and the right thing.
“We conclude by reminding the PDP of new realities as succinctly captured by President Muhammadu Buhari, ‘…the old Nigeria is slowly but surely disappearing and a new era is rising… Unlike undemocratic practices under past administrations, elections under the APC administration are increasingly freer and fairer — a very significant feat in our march for lasting and representative democracy.”
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