*Demands prosecution of INEC chairman
From Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Sunday said that the fresh revelations in the European Union (EU) report has further vindicated the PDP and millions of Nigerians, in its position that the February 23 Presidential election was rigged to favour President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In its reaction signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Olagbindiyan, the party said that the revelations of manipulations as detailed in the EU report further validates queries by Nigerians that President Buhari was not validly returned for a second term in office.
According to the statement, “The world can now see that the PDP has not been crying wolf in insisting that the election was outrightly rigged with the cancellation of millions of PDP votes, alteration of results and allocation of fictitious votes to the APC.
“Nigerians are still in shock over the revelations by EU of how about 2.8 million votes were deliberately “cancelled without sufficient accountability” and how several returning officers gave no reason for the cancellations.
“More shocking is the iniquity committed at the national collation center, headed by the INEC Chairman, where the EU report exposed inconsistent numbers, distortions and “a large discrepancy of “1.66 million more registered voters, as announced by INEC on 14 January, compared to those announced by state returning officers during the collation of presidential results.
“Nigerians witnessed, on national TV, how professors and returning officers were unable to reconcile result figures due to heavy manipulations upon which INEC declared the APC winner”.
PDP further added that the EU report has further exposed the iniquity committed by the Prof. Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC by listing how ballot boxes were compromised, how essential materials were missing, how “voter register was not always ticked as required” and how “manual authentication procedures were not correctly followed”.
The report, PDP said also bared how figures on result forms did not reconcile, how result forms were not publicly posted, how “result forms and smart card readers were not packed in tamper-evident envelops as required”, in addition to how the APC administration used security forces to intimidate voters, aid violence against PDP members and muscled votes for the APC
The PDP commended the EU for the courage in exposing what it called the evils committed by the APC and INEC in the 2019 general election.
Moreover, , it said, “the report has further reinforced the confidence of millions of Nigerians in our collective expectation of justice in the quest to retrieve our stolen Presidential mandate at the tribunal.
“The PDP insists that those in INEC, who perpetrated such crime against our nation, in sabotaging the sanctity of our electoral processes to frustrate the choice of Nigerians in a presidential election, must be brought to book and made to face the wrath of the law.
“Our party therefore urges Nigerians to remain calm as the truth about the election continues to unfold while justice takes its course on the matter”, PDP added.
