Opposition, PDP squabble over alleged rigging plan

A few hours to the presidential poll, the two main opposition parties and the Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday engaged each other in a war of words. While the opposition —the Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change — alleged that the PDP had put machinery in place to rig the election, the ruling party said it had worked hard to beat the ACN and CPC ‘silly’ tomorrow. The opposition parties, through their presidential candidates — Mallam Nuhu Ribadu (ACN) and, MaJ.-Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (CPC)— said the task before them was to ensure that PDP rigging machine was stopped. Ribadu and Buhari, who also spoke on the failed alliance talks between their parties, advised the electorate to vote out the ruling party and to ensure that their votes were protected. Ribadu, at a news conference in Abuja, claimed that the electoral fraud which, according to him, took place during the National Assembly elections on Saturday, was rearing its head again. He said, “In last week’s National Assembly election, the same challenge (electoral fraud) started rearing its ugly head again and the main perpetrators are the same gifted captains in the art of election rigging and manipulation. “They are roaming the streets about now, getting set for action, and if they did it last week, we would all be naive to imagine that they would yield on this criminal and unpatriotic acts and go on vacation this coming Saturday.” Warning against the manipulation of votes during the elections tomorrow, the ACN candidate appealed to Nigerians not to sell their conscience since their votes were their future. “The future we are stepping into is longer than the past we are coming from, and I understand that not all the variables are in the hands of the electorates,” he added. Ribadu also advised officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission and law enforcement agents to fear God, especially at this time, and put the interest of the nation above all considerations. Also, Buhari, through his spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said Nigerians must get rid of the PDP on Saturday. “This is our finest hour to get the PDP out and we must not miss it. The rigging machine must be smashed on Saturday,” he stated. The former Head of Sate added the task at hand was to defeat the PDP at the polls through the mass turnout of voters and “eternal vigilance from accreditation to the final announcement of results.” But the National Legal Adviser of the PDP, Chief Olusola Oke, in an interview with one of our correspondents on the telephone, denied the allegation of rigging against the ruling party. Oke, who noted that the two opposition parties had exposed their plans to rig the election, said the PDP would beat them ‘silly’ on Saturday. He said, “We are used to them. Anytime they want to perpetrate evil, they first of all accuse the ruling party of what they want to do and while the ruling party is busy defending itself, they go into the field and perpetrate evil. “The thing is that these political parties want to rig. The outcome of the last election on Saturday had shown that the PDP is the dominant political party in Nigeria. “Where is CPC in Nigeria? This is a party that cannot even cross Katsina State talk less of crossing to Lokoja? The ACN on the other hand is a localised party in the South-West. “It is not even dominant in the region because come Saturday, we are going to defeat it in Ogun State. We will beat the two of them silly. “The PDP is not in contest with these localised parties. We believe in one-man-one-vote. While these parties were busy working on the pages of newspapers, we were busy campaigning across the country. “The PDP is also the most viable and national party to contest election in the country. You can quote me on this. Most reasonable members of these two political parties, especially the civilised ones, are going to vote for Jonathan on Saturday.” Buhari and Ribadu also spoke on the failed alliance talks between their parties. While Buhari attributed it to the insistence of the ACN to produce the vice-presidential candidate, Ribadu said the ‘ego and self-centered world of politicians’ caused the failure. Buhari said that he embraced the renewed talks between the two parties in the best interest of Nigerians, who were yearning for change. He said, “We suggested that they should let us jointly go into the elections and jointly form the government after our victory. But our friends (in the ACN) were not ready to take us on our honour and then went to the media.” But Ribadu explained that in spite of the fact that the ACN won more senatorial and House of Representatives seats, it was ready to allow the CPC produce the presidential candidate for the planned alliance. He said that the CPC rejected ACN’s demand to produce vice-president The ACN candidate said, “Opposition politicians understood the need to use this opportunity to make the future address the past of our nation. We tried hard to forge an alliance to address the problem. “Sadly, however, the ego and self-centered world of politicians have made it impossible to forge that type of massive force against the administration of the ruling PDP.” By Niyi Odebode and Olusola Fabiyi, Abuja Courtesy Of: Punch