The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Wednesday stated it will not frustrate the conduct of the forth coming reschedule election because it is sure of winning.
The All Progressives Congress, Lai Mohammed, had on Wednesday addressed a press conference where he said the party has uncovered plans by the PDP to truncate the conduct of the elections.
Mr. Mohammed said to achieve their aim; the Nigerian government is planning to deposit a large sum of money into the bank account of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, in order to frame one of its leaders, Bola Tinubu.
He also said the government plans to use some political parties that he said, are satellites of the ruling PDP, to push for the postponement of the elections again.
But, the spokesperson of Mr. Jonathan’s campaign, Femi Fani-Kayode, swiftly addressed a press conference on Wednesday saying the PDP is sure of victory at the polls.
“We can categorically state that the PDP, having earned pass marks for overseeing the conduct of free and fair elections in the past had no plans to compromise the coming elections, given our high-level of preparedness for the exercise.
“As at today, President Goodluck Jonathan has led the campaign of PDP to all the 36 states of the Federation, specifically to most places which the APC and other parties had never gone to.
“We are, by this, confident of winning the forthcoming elections by the grace of the Almighty God and the support of a vast majority of Nigerians. We will win resoundingly while the APC will suffer a crushing and irreversible defeat,” Mr. Fani-Kayode said.
Mr. Fani-Kayode also denied all the allegations raised by Mr. Mohammed.
“The truth is that we are not strategizing to shift the election dates. We are not trying to frame up Jega. We have no plans to plant any illegal substance in the bags of any of the leaders of the APC whenever they travel.
“We are not trying to compromise the telephone numbers of any of the INEC officials. President Jonathan is not planning to arrest opposition leaders before the elections.
“The Presidency has not retained the services of any foreigner to corrupt or compromise INEC computers on Election Day and we are not planning to do any of the other reprehensible things that they have alleged,” Mr. Fani-Kayode said.
He said the APC is just resorting to peddling “falsehood” in order to gain public sympathy.
The former Aviation Minister added that the APC and its leaders are simply unravelling and falling apart at the seams.
He said the opposition party is the one who perfected a plan to rig the forthcoming elections through the lopsided distribution of Permanent Voter Cards.
“They were very comfortable with the fact that 34 percent of registered voters had not collected their PVCs as at February 14 just before the presidential election was postponed.
“The APC and its leaders said that they were ready for that election when it was obvious that the PVC collection rate in the north, comprising some of the traditional strongholds of their presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, was higher than the collection rate in the south, the traditional support base of our candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan,” he said.
He alleged that the APC is angered because many eligible voters are now going out to collect their PVCs.
“How can they be happy when the advantage they obviously enjoyed before the postponement of the February 14 presidential election has now been removed?” he said.
On the issue of the use of card readers for the election, Mr. Fani-Kayode maintained that the machine has not been tested in any election and there are bases for genuine concern over its use for the first time, in a crucial election.
He said the PDP is aware of a plot by the APC, “working in cahoots with some strategically placed and retrogressive elements, to use the card readers to frustrate accreditation in some parts of the country while not enforcing strict use of the machines in some other parts”.
“The truth is that if they go ahead with that wicked plot, the APC and its collaborators will only be preparing the ground for mass resistance.
“They can be rest assured that we will not sit by idly and allow such a thing to unfold,” he said.
