By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised the alarm over the three-day distribution of the Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) in 12 states, which rounded off yesterday, saying the process was intentionally programmed to fail in order to disenfranchise voters in the states with the highest number of voters.
The party said it was curious that most of the affected states, which included Kaduna, Kano, Edo, Plateau, Ogun, Imo, Borno, Rivers, Lagos, Nasarawa, Katsina and Niger, were either opposition strongholds or harbour the highest number of voters.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the fact that most of the 12 states in which the process had been largely botched in the past three days had the highest number of voters and were under the control of the APC points to a clear collusion between the INEC and the PDP.
It said most registered voters were unable to collect their PVCs because INEC engaged in a programmed incompetence to swing the elections in favour of the PDP in what is a clear case of rigging at source.
It said: “’There is no doubt that this programmed incompetence has emanated from just one source, the ICT unit of INEC, with the intent of sabotaging the PVC distribution process in key states. Hence we are calling on INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, to institute an internal inquiry into the botched exercise with a view to fishing out the fifth columnists who are behind the sabotage, meting out the necessary punishment to them.
“If INEC is to organise a free, credible and transparent election next February, it must quickly return to the drawing board to fashion out how to ensure that all Nigerians who are eligible to vote are able to do so without hindrance, and also purge itself of the fifth columnists within its ranks who are bent on sabotaging the elections.
“This is highly suspicious, against the background of available information that the PDP-led federal government is working to disenfranchise voters in opposition strongholds during the forthcoming polls.”
The APC, therefore, slammed INEC for resorting to lame excuses for botching the exercise, saying that Nigerians were not interested in who got the contract to produce the cards but in being able to exercise their franchise during the forthcoming elections.
