The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State, on Wednesday, claimed that it had uncovered an alleged deceitful plot by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to manipulate and rig the forthcoming elections for President Muhammadu Buhari and All Progressives Congress (APC) through several devious strategies.
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The State Publicity Secretary of the Party, Mr. Ifeanyi Osuoza, in a statement he signed, a copy, which was made available to DAILY POST in Asaba, alleged that the gambit of the electoral body was to stage manage the pre-loading and key in the card readers with pre-determined fictitious voters’ details before accreditation.
According to him, “Our thorough investigations revealed that the first ploy in the uncovered series stratagems to tinker with the February 16, and March 2, elections is a deceptive tactics designed to make President Muhammadu Buhari and APC candidates gain the upper hand through underhand manipulation of pre determined names of fictitious voters.
“The import of the plot is to manipulate the smart card readers so as to substance 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 APC Candidates during the elections.
The statement further alleged that in addition to the brazen plot, it was gathered that the ultimate plan of the supposed electoral umpire was to allegedly swap the original result sheets at the collation centers, all parts of the grand desperation to manipulate the process and short change the will of the People.
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“Again, PDP has also been alerted to the fact that the APC in a grand design to infiltrate the composition and membership of electoral officers for the elections, has crashed in on the shortfall of required personnel from the Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba and the Federal University of Petroleum Resources ( FUPRE) Effurun , it has 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,” PDP alleged.
“PDP, therefore, demands as a matter of 48 hour ultimatum for INEC 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, 2019 elections at all levels for verification by stakeholders failure to which might attract a massive protest in the State.”
But in swift reaction, INEC Commissioner in the State, Dr Cyril Omorogbe, described the allegations as spurious and unfounded, adding, “the eras of elections rigging are over, PDP is jittery for nothing, no proof in all its allegations.”
