The All Progressives Congress has raised the alarm over the three-day distribution of the Permanent Voter’s Cards in 12 states, which is rounding off on Sunday.
It said the “process was intentionally programmed to fail in order to disenfranchise voters in the states with the highest number of voters.”
This was contained in a statement in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
APC claimed that the fact that most of the 12 states in which the process had been held in the past three days had the highest number of voters and were under the control of the APC, pointed to a clear collusion between the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Peoples Democratic Party.
The party alleged that most registered voters were unable to collect their PVCs because INEC engaged in a “programmed incompetence to swing the elections in favour of the PDP,” claiming that the strategy was “a clear case of rigging at source.”
It said, ”There is no doubt that this programmed incompetence has emanated from just one source, the ICT unit of INEC, with the intent to sabotaging the PVC distribution process in key states. We are calling on INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega to institute an internal inquiry into the botched exercise with a view to fishing out the fifth columnists, who are behind the sabotage, meting out the necessary punishment to them.
”If INEC is to organise a free, credible and transparent elections next February, it must quickly return to the drawing board to fashion out how to ensure that all Nigerians, who are eligible to vote, are able to do so without hindrance, and also purge itself of the fifth columnists within its ranks, who are bent on sabotaging the elections.”
The party said it is curious that most of the affected states (Kaduna, Kano, Edo, Plateau, Ogun, Imo, Borno, Rivers, Lagos, Nasarawa, Katsina, Niger) are either opposition strongholds or harbour the highest huge number of voters.
APC said, ”This is highly suspicious, against the background of available information that the PDP-led Federal Government is working to disenfranchise voters in opposition strongholds during the forthcoming polls.
I added that the failed exercise turned out to be in the affected states raised some questions:
The party said, “Why did INEC put those states together for the PVCs distribution exercise in the first instance? Why did INEC announce the dates for the distribution of PVCs in the states if the electoral body was not ready? And why was a process that has taken INEC four years to plan end up being so shoddy?”
source: nigerianeye
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