Details On How The Presidential Election Was Won And Lost
Fresh details have emerged on Monday on how the presidential election was won and lost.
Punch Reports
It was gathered from a PDP chieftain that his party and the APC devised fresh methods on how to outwit each other three months before the March 28 elections.
The source, who is a member of the PDP NWC, said a key component of his party’s strategy centered on the Permanent Voter Cards.
He said, “The whole thing started in January when we observed that the PVC distribution was skewed. Already, we knew that President Jonathan would not win any state in the North-West which is the biggest geopolitical zone in the country because it has seven states.
“We in the PDP decided to focus on Lagos and other states in the South but the APC connived with the Independent National Electoral Commission when the distribution of PVCs was moved to the local government headquarters.
“APC leaders were allowed to collect PVCs on behalf of their members while the distribution of PVCs in Igbo-dominated areas was frustrated in Lagos. We in turn quickly sponsored some protests in Lagos but by the time the cards arrived, the time was too short for all of them (cards) to be distributed.”
He claimed that when the Presidency realised that the PVC distribution was favouring the APC, “a series of meetings was held and it was decided that Prof. Femi Mimiko, the younger brother of the Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, should be made the INEC chairman while Prof. Attahiru Jega would be asked to go on terminal leave.”
The source however said that Jonathan was not ‘brave’ enough to implement the idea because he jettisoned it when some northern elements in the PDP leaked the information to the APC.
The source said, “There were some northern elements in the party that were always giving the APC information whenever we ended our meetings. We then conspired to postpone the elections.”
He said the postponement of the polls from February 14 was to ensure that the PVCs or the card readers were not used.
The source added, “We (PDP) spent a considerable amount of money trying to convince Nigerians to reject their usage.
“We decided to use the newspaper adverts and protests by the Oodua Peoples Congress and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra to enlighten people of the ‘danger’ of using the PVCs or card readers but the APC, which has a strong media base was able to twist the issue to its favour.
“The PDP Governors’ Forum also met with civil society groups in Lagos and gave out money to the groups to continue to hold protests in various parts of the country but these people were not given adequate media coverage.”
The source stated that even on March 28, efforts were made to manipulate the results of the polls.
The source said it was curious that card readers worked ‘perfectly well’ in the North but poorly in the South where even the President could not get accredited through the device.
He said, “The truth is that we all plotted our strategies to win the elections but the APC did a better job and I have to congratulate them.
“We knew that our plot could only work well where the APC is not considered strong but we did not expect huge figures from the North.
“The APC got 1.9 million votes in Kano State with little or no voided votes. How could that have been possible? The APC also got millions of votes in Kaduna and Kastina states; so we responded by ensuring that the figures in Rivers State rose to 1.4 million. In reality, less than 700,000 people voted in that state due to violence.
“When we saw what was happening, we reached out to governors in the South-South to try all they could to delay the collation of results in their respective states until all the northern states had been announced.
“However, it was only Delta State that succeeded and that was why the results were announced the following day and Jonathan got about 1.2 million votes.”
INEC in Lagos had in a statement by its Head, Public Affairs, Femi Akinbiyi, denied allegation that it deliberately deprived non-indigenes of their PVCs or giving preference to APC members.
The commission, however, admitted that two of its officials were sacked for denying non-indigenes their PVCs in February.
Meanwhile, The All Progressives Congress has won the rescheduled Edo State House of Assembly election for Orhionmwon Constituency II.
READ MORE: http://www.naij.com/425287-details-on-how-the-presidential-election-was-won-and-lost.html
Outgoing president, Goodluck Jonathan and President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, smile profusely
It was gathered from a PDP chieftain that his party and the APC devised fresh methods on how to outwit each other three months before the March 28 elections.
The source, who is a member of the PDP NWC, said a key component of his party’s strategy centered on the Permanent Voter Cards.
He said, “The whole thing started in January when we observed that the PVC distribution was skewed. Already, we knew that President Jonathan would not win any state in the North-West which is the biggest geopolitical zone in the country because it has seven states.
“We in the PDP decided to focus on Lagos and other states in the South but the APC connived with the Independent National Electoral Commission when the distribution of PVCs was moved to the local government headquarters.
“APC leaders were allowed to collect PVCs on behalf of their members while the distribution of PVCs in Igbo-dominated areas was frustrated in Lagos. We in turn quickly sponsored some protests in Lagos but by the time the cards arrived, the time was too short for all of them (cards) to be distributed.”
He claimed that when the Presidency realised that the PVC distribution was favouring the APC, “a series of meetings was held and it was decided that Prof. Femi Mimiko, the younger brother of the Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, should be made the INEC chairman while Prof. Attahiru Jega would be asked to go on terminal leave.”
The source however said that Jonathan was not ‘brave’ enough to implement the idea because he jettisoned it when some northern elements in the PDP leaked the information to the APC.
The source said, “There were some northern elements in the party that were always giving the APC information whenever we ended our meetings. We then conspired to postpone the elections.”
He said the postponement of the polls from February 14 was to ensure that the PVCs or the card readers were not used.
The source added, “We (PDP) spent a considerable amount of money trying to convince Nigerians to reject their usage.
“We decided to use the newspaper adverts and protests by the Oodua Peoples Congress and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra to enlighten people of the ‘danger’ of using the PVCs or card readers but the APC, which has a strong media base was able to twist the issue to its favour.
“The PDP Governors’ Forum also met with civil society groups in Lagos and gave out money to the groups to continue to hold protests in various parts of the country but these people were not given adequate media coverage.”
The source stated that even on March 28, efforts were made to manipulate the results of the polls.
The source said it was curious that card readers worked ‘perfectly well’ in the North but poorly in the South where even the President could not get accredited through the device.
He said, “The truth is that we all plotted our strategies to win the elections but the APC did a better job and I have to congratulate them.
“We knew that our plot could only work well where the APC is not considered strong but we did not expect huge figures from the North.
“The APC got 1.9 million votes in Kano State with little or no voided votes. How could that have been possible? The APC also got millions of votes in Kaduna and Kastina states; so we responded by ensuring that the figures in Rivers State rose to 1.4 million. In reality, less than 700,000 people voted in that state due to violence.
“When we saw what was happening, we reached out to governors in the South-South to try all they could to delay the collation of results in their respective states until all the northern states had been announced.
“However, it was only Delta State that succeeded and that was why the results were announced the following day and Jonathan got about 1.2 million votes.”
INEC in Lagos had in a statement by its Head, Public Affairs, Femi Akinbiyi, denied allegation that it deliberately deprived non-indigenes of their PVCs or giving preference to APC members.
The commission, however, admitted that two of its officials were sacked for denying non-indigenes their PVCs in February.
Meanwhile, The All Progressives Congress has won the rescheduled Edo State House of Assembly election for Orhionmwon Constituency II.
No comments:
Post a Comment