The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) on Sunday alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is covertly buying up voters’ cards from unsuspecting members of the public.
The CNPP, which made the allegation in a statement issued by its national publicity secretary, Osita Okechukwu, however, commended President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the PDP presidential candidate, for stating clearly that he does not want anybody to rig the April presidential poll for him.
The group said its investigation revealed that the acting national chairman of PDP, Bello Mohammed and members of the national working committee have withdrawn over ₦2 billion from the party’s account to purchase the voters’ cards, especially in the northwest states where the party is considered weak.
The coalition of opposition parties recalled that the governorship candidate of Congress for Progressive Change {CPC} for Adamawa State, Buba Marwa raised the fears on the alleged planned purchase in the state.
“To our chagrin,” it said “we discovered that it is not only in Adamawa State, as variants of voters’card buying is ongoing in Katsina, Kano, Bauchi, Kaduna, Rivers, Bayelsa etc,” Mr Okechukwu said.
The group urged Mr. Jonathan to stop the alleged plan and also call to order the NWC of his party. In the wake of the allegation, the campaign organisation of Kayode Ajulo, the Labour Party (LP) senatorial candidate in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday accused the ruling party of planning to rig the April polls by buying up voters’ cards. In a petition to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the organisation alleged that agents of the party are paying between ₦5000 and ₦10,000 to people for their cards in Abuja.
It added that those who are unwilling to sell their cards are being intimidated and sometimes harassed. “The modus operandi of these PDP agents, who can be identified by our supporters is to approach people under the guise of doing one-on-one / door-to-door campaign and make the offer of exchanging the voter’s cards with the above mentioned amount, as if this is not enough,
these agents also went as far as promising to buy hundreds if available and when our loyal supporters rejected the offer, they were subjected to intimidation and harassment in form of threat and unrelenting visitation,” the campaign team said. “As law abiding citizens of Nigeria, we note that the act as perpetrated by these agents is illegal as well as outlawed under the extant Electoral Act 2011 particularly Section 23 (1).
Idle talks
However, the national publicity secretary of PDP, Ahmed Alkali described the allegation as idle talk, adding that it is coming from people who have nothing to do. “We view it as idle talks which lack basis or foundation. It is ridiculous that we (the PDP) that have been going round the country campaigning vigorously could be accused of such act while they are busy sleeping,” he said. “It appears to us that that is exactly what they are trying to do. This type of outlandish bruises is only coming from people who have nothing to do. If they are serious, let them go out and start campaigning as we are doing and stop diverting the attention of Nigerians.”