Card reader: PDP plans to rig, says APC

The All Progressives Congress has said the Peoples Democratic Party’s opposition to the use of Card Readers during the oncoming elections has shown the “accuracy of the APC’s accusations” that the ruling party plans to either prevent the election from holding or to rig it.

In a statement in Lagos on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party described as very curious the fact that the PDP “that rushed to the press” to deny the APC’s claims, “quickly turned around to confirm them.”

The party said, ”At the press conference we addressed on Wednesday, which rattled the PDP and the President Goodluck Jonathan Administration so much, we listed the conditionalities of the PDP/Jonathan Administration for holding the election: ‘No PVC, No Card Reader, No Jega’ and the fact that the party wants the military deployed to harass and intimidate voters.

“We mentioned ‘Card Readers’ at least three times during the press conference, and said they (PDP/Jonathan Administration) are doing everything possible to sabotage the machine and prevent its use.

“Both the spokesmen for the PDP and the Jonathan Campaign Organisation rushed to the press to deny any such ‘reprehensible’ plan. But a few hours later, the spokesman for the campaign organisation told an incredulous country that they would oppose the use of Card Reader, apparently after the spokesmen were overruled by their party.

APC added, “Obviously, these men are outsiders in their own party and it is now obvious that the opposition knows more about the inner workings of their party than they do.”

“In an apparently-choreographed show, some 15 portfolio political parties called a press conference to also announce that they will oppose the use of the Card Reader, vowing to boycott the elections and use a legal process to prevent the use of the machine.”

The party said these syndicated threats are the latest indications of the mortal fear in the corridors of power about the machine that has now become the nemesis of election riggers and manipulators worldwide.