- PDP has accused INEC of colluding with APC to rig Saturday, February 23, presidential and National Assembly elections
- The party made the allegation on Tuesday, March 5, in a letter signed by its national chairman, Uche Secondus, and submitted to the INEC
- Secondus accused the APC led federal government and INEC of militarisation of polls in its strongholds during the Saturday election
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) colluded with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the Saturday, February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections.
Premium Times reports that the party made the allegation in a letter signed by its national chairman, Uche Secondus, which was presented to INEC during a protest staged by the party on Tuesday, March 5.
Legit.ng gathered that some leaders of the party marched to the headquarters of INEC on Tuesday, March 5, to protest the outcome of the presidential election.
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According to a tweet by INEC, Secondus led many of his party’s supporters to the commission’s office at Maitama around 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
In the letter, the PDP accused the APC led federal government and INEC of militarisation of polls in its strongholds and skewing the process in the favour of the ruling party.
Secondus said the letter became imperative as the nation approached the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections on March 9.
The letter which was titled: ''Cases of infractions and deliberate violations of the electoral law and guidelines'', was made available to journalists.
It read: “We want to place on record and bring to your attention the very obvious and noticeable infractions and violations of the Electoral Law and the regulations/guidelines regulating the 2019 general elections which have very negative implications on the credibility, transparency and integrity of the entire electoral processes particularly the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections.
“We observed with regrets that the usage of the SCR machines was enforced strategically in the south-south, southeast and the north central zones of the country which are essentially the PDP strongholds.
''This is radically different from what transpired in the northwest, northeast and the southwest, which were estimated as the APC strongholds.
“This is quite contrary to the provisions of paragraph 10(a) & (b) of the regulations and guidelines governing the 2019 general elections and all the assurances you, Prof. Yakub Mahmood, frequently gave up to the last hours before the elections.
“The deliberate non-deployment of the electronic collation system (E-Collation) for the elections results from the units, through the ward centres to the presidential collation Centre in Abuja as provided for in the 2019 electoral regulations and guidelines made by you, and as contained in your several official press statements is very suspect.
“This is more so when you have never bothered to explain to Nigerians the justification for this sudden official somersault on such a critical component of the electoral process especially with all the taxpayer’s money spent to install the facilities.
“The unconstitutional deployment of the armed forces especially soldiers and police for the illegitimate purposes to harassing, intimidating, suppressing of leaders of the PDP and suppression of voters in the PDP strongholds across the country which are very well known to you.
The party also said most of the collation centres in the country were cordoned off by officers and men of the armed forces who allegedly chased its accredited agents and/or candidates.
He said results of the elections from such units were being manipulated, mutilated and altered to suit the dictates and “criminal” desires of the APC-led government.
“These results that were tampered with were accepted by you and your commission and announced as the results of the elections.
“In places like Lagos, Rivers, Nasarawa, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Ondo, Osun states et al, results of duly conducted elections were illegally cancelled especially in the PDP dominated areas to reduce the margin of victory in those states in favour of the APC candidates. Is it not surprising to you that the Lagos state with over six million voters can only return less than one million votes?
The party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had rejected the result of the poll as declared by INEC.
INEC had declared President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC as winner of the election and returned him as duly elected.
Buhari, according to the electoral body, scored 15,191,847 votes. Mr Abubakar garnered 11,262,978 votes to finish as runner-up.
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But in his response to the declaration, the PDP candidate said the result was unacceptable to him and he would challenge it in court.
He has since commenced the process of judicial redress.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Osita Okechukwu, director-general of the Voice of Nigeria, said the days of writing election results in hotels and era of vote-buying in the country have been eliminated by President Muhammadu Buhari.
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