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Dr. Ifeanyi Osuoza, Delta PDP, Publicity scribe.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State says it has uncovered underhand moves by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig Saturday’s and other elections for President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)
The party in a statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary, Dr. Ifeanyi Osuoza, while alerting Deltans and calling the attention of the voting public, alleged that a disingenuous plot by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to manipulate and rig the forthcoming elections for President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC), through several devious strategies, has been uncovered.
According to Osuoza, the first ploy is the alleged underhand move to pre-load and stuff the card readers before accreditation with pre-determined names of fake voters.
Besides, the PDP alleged that the ultimate intention in the series of the devious plots is to swap the original result sheets at the collation centres through manipulation, shortchange the people’s will and rig the election in favour of Buhari and the APC.
The party called on the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmud and his Electoral Commissioners and officers to wash their hands clean off these evil plans and plots as any contrary action has the real possibility of stoking a major crisis during the elections.
Specifically it reiterated the demand by the PDP national office asking the INEC to produce the list of electoral officers it has received from the Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba and Federal University of Petroleum Resources, FUPRE, Effurun both in Delta State and display the names of these persons alleged to be staff of the two institutions in the public domain, for verification, authentication and confirmation by the management authorities of the FCE (T) and FUPRE as either members of the Academic or Non-academic Staff of the institutions.
The PDP hinged its demand on the alleged “grand design to infiltrate the composition and membership of electoral officers for the election, had cashed in on the shortfall of required personnel from the Federal College of Education (Technical), FCE(T), Asaba and the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, FUPRE, Effurun, and submitted the names of loyalists and card-carrying members of the APC masquerading as staff of the two institutions, to INEC in order to make up the deficit as demanded by the electoral umpire.”
The Full text of the Delta PDP statement made available to banneronlinenews.com today reads:

PRESS RELEASE

12th February 2019

INEC’s ALLEGED PLAN TO PRE-LOAD CARD READERS, SWAP ORIGINAL RESULT SHEETS IN DELTA STATE UNCOVERED.
The Delta State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, wish to alert Deltans in particular and call the attention of Nigerians and the voting public in general, that a disingenuous plot by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to manipulate and rig the forthcoming elections for President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC), through several devious strategies, has been uncovered.

Our thorough investigations reveal that the first ploy in the uncovered series of stratagems to tinker with the February 16 and March 2nd elections, is a deceptive tactic designed to make President Buhari and the APC candidates gain the upper hand through the underhand manipulation of pre-loading and stuffing of the Card Readers before accreditation with pre-determined names of fictitious voters.

In other words, the import of the plot is to manipulate the smart card readers so as to substitute biometric accreditation with manual verification of already pre-loaded names thus paving way for mass rigging and allocation of fictitious votes for President Buhari and other APC Candidates during the elections.

In addition to this brazen plot, we also have it on good authority that the ultimate plan of the supposed independent electoral umpire is to allegedly swap the original result sheets at the collation centres, all part of the grand desperation to manipulate the electoral process, shortchange the will of the people and rig the election in favour of the unpopular Buhari and the APC candidates

Again, we have also been alerted to the fact that the APC, in a grand design to infiltrate the composition and membership of electoral officers for the election, had cashed in on the shortfall of required personnel from the Federal College of Education (Technical), FCE(T), Asaba and the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, FUPRE, Effurun, and submitted the names of loyalists and card-carrying members of the APC masquerading as staff of the two institutions, to INEC in order to make up the deficit as demanded by the electoral umpire.

It will be recalled that the national secretariat of our party, the PDP, had recently handed INEC, a 48-hour ultimatum to make public the list of all officials and ad-hoc staff that would be involved in any manner or form in the February 16 Presidential election at all levels, for verification by stakeholders.

That demand had been predicated on findings which had suggested that the INEC leadership had deferred to directives by Buhari Presidency and granted leeway to the APC to collate lists of their loyalists from APC State Governors and candidates, across the federation, which was subsequently handed over to INEC to serve as electoral officials, including ad-hoc staff and returning officers at the polling units.

We also recall that the APC had openly directed INEC to ignore the PDP and go ahead with its compromised list and shocking as this may sound, the INEC leadership had completely disregarded our demand and proceeded in what can only be interpreted as total obedience to the APC instructions, carried out ostensibly because of threats to give its leadership the “Onnoghen treatment” if it fails to comply.

From the foregoing, therefore, it is clear to all that the Buhari Presidency and the APC are out to rig the election and that INEC is in clear deficit of the required will to conduct a credible, free and fair election.

We are therefore reiterating the call earlier made by our National Secretariat and particularly challenging INEC to produce the list of electoral officers it has received from the Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba and Federal University of Petroleum Resources, FUPRE, Effurun both in Delta State and display the names of these persons alleged to be staff of the two institutions in the public domain, for verification, authentication and confirmation by the management authorities of the FCE (T) and FUPRE as either members of the Academic or Non-academic Staff of the institutions.

We urge the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmud and his Electoral Commissioners and officers to wash their hands clean off these evil plans and plots as any contrary action has the real possibility of stoking a major crisis during the elections. We demand that INEC supervises and produce for Nigeria a free, fair and credible election by living above board as a trustworthy, dependable and unbiased umpire.

We equally call on the various security agencies to see to it that they remain unbiased, conduct themselves with professional decorum and integrity and desist from engaging in acts that will convey to the world, in a way, that they have been compromised to rig the election for President Buhari and the APC.

Finally, we charge the Nigerian voters, the election monitors and both local and international observers, to stand firm and strong to defend the votes and voting rights of Nigerians, ensure that no manipulation of the electoral process is allowed and maintain the primary objective of the elections which is that the will of the people and their votes must count.

INEC has a daunting duty to deliver to Nigerians and the observing international community clean, free, fair and credible elections. Any move to rig this election through manipulation of any kind, or using the security agencies in favour of Buhari and the APC that have foisted bad governance on Nigerians shall be resisted.

The entire world is aware that Nigerians have reached an irrevocable consensus that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is the people’s candidate and next President of our country and this is why our presidential rallies, including the hugely successful carnivalesque reception Deltans, recently gave to our presidential candidate at the Stephen Keshi International Stadium, Asaba have all established the fact that we are set for the election and we will resist every attempt by the APC to rig the February 16 and March 2, 2019 elections in any part of Delta State.

We are fully aware of the possibility that INEC may choose to also disregard this challenge and observations we have highlighted and in this regard, the Delta PDP is joining our national leadership to charge all our members and supporters to be extra vigilant by closely monitoring all electoral activities around their polling centres. Our members and supporters are further directed to get prepared to arrive at their polling centres very early on the day of election; monitor the activities of electoral officers, note all strange faces and resist any attempt by any alien or unregistered person to vote and should remain at the polling centre after casting their votes, monitor the collation of result, use all legitimate means available to defend all our votes to the last and ensure that no result is altered.

Nigerians are tired of the lacklustre, inept and directionless governance of Buhari and the APC and they have vowed to replace this suffering and hardship inflicting administration with the PDP and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as President come February 16, 2019, and also return our award-winning Governor Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa (Ekwueme) back for his merited, mandatory and well deserved second term on March 2, 2019.

PDP is Delta and Delta State is PDP.

Long live PDP

God bless our dear Delta State.

Signed:

Dr. Ifeanyi Michael Osuoza,
State Publicity Secretary,
PDP, Delta State.