The PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), of poor handling of distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to eligible voters.
Femi Fani-Kayode, Director of Media and Publicity of the organisation, made the accusation at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
He alleged that the INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, may be working in collaboration with some members of the opposition to favour the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The matter is that INEC has failed in its responsibility to produce and distribute PVCs to about 34% of registered voters who would require the cards to vote in the elections.
This brings us to the issue of statistics of PVC distribution and collection, which we believe Prof. Jega, as a person, acting in concert with some forces of retrogression, is playing games with.
We express our concerns today that Jega may have decided to aid the APC to rig the forthcoming elections through the manipulation of the production, distribution and collection of PVCs,” he said.
According to Fani-Kayode, emerging trends had shown calculated attempts to deprive parts of the country that would vote for President Goodluck Jonathan, of their PVCs.
He said that parts of the country that would vote for the APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, already have their PVCs.
Fanyi-Kayode described as unjustifiable, attacks on the PDP, on the postponement of the scheduled Feb. 14 and 28 general elections to March 28 and April 11 by the INEC.
According to him, the INEC chairman hinged the postponement on the security advice given by the National Security Adviser with respect to the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East.
He said Jega deliberately failed to tell Nigerians the whole truth that underpinned the postponement.
This, he added, provided the opposition APC a platform to accuse the PDP of complicity in the decision to postpone the elections.
He stressed that the decision to postpone the elections was INEC’s, since it was constitutionally saddled with that responsibility.
“The commission has done just that and it had hinted that it was having challenges with the distribution and collection of the PVCs.
He stressed that the PDP had realised “how Jega dishonestly presented the reasons for the postponement of the elections.’’
According to Fani-Kayode, the major reason that informed INEC’s decision “was the deliberate attempt by the commission to disenfranchise over 23 million eligible voters who are yet to collect their PVCs.’’
He alleged that the collection rates of PVCs in the North Central, South-South, South West and South East regions assumed to be pro-Jonathan, were much lower with the highest being 57%.
He noted that the North West zone which includes Katsina, the home state of Buhari, APC presidential candidate, had the highest collection rate of 80 per cent.
He also claimed that the North-East had a 75% collection rate when the three states in this zone, Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, had been under the attack of Boko Haram insurgents.
