PDP says former deputy senate president acted on his own

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that it did not ask the former deputy senate president, Ibrahim Mantu to rig elections.

Mantu had earlier confessed to rigging elections in favour of the PDP in the past.

He said that he gave money to officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security operatives to manipulate elections in favour of the PDP.

Mantu also described himself as a born-again politician.

APC rides on Mantu’s confession

Following the revelation, the All Progressives Congress (APC) advised the PDP to follow Mantu’s example by confessing its sins against the country.

According to the APC, the PDP is not ready for repentance, adding that the party only offered the apology with the hope that Nigerians would grant it amnesty and a short-cut back to power.

On your own

Speaking further on Mantu’s confession, the PDP said that the former deputy senate president’s confession is personal to him.

According to the party’s spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, his confession has nothing to do with the PDP.

He said “Senator Mantu spoke about his personal activities and tendencies in the elections where he participated. The PDP has never directed or had any pact with him to rig election on its behalf. Never!

“Individuals run their elections on the platform of political parties once they emerge as candidates. In the PDP, candidates are issued with the party’s Code of Conduct containing the basic rules of electioneering engagements.

“There is nowhere in these rules of engagement where candidates or party members are directed to rig elections on behalf of the party. If any member’s conduct transgressed these basic rules of engagement, that individual did not act on behalf of the PDP, and as such the party cannot be vicariously held responsible.

“It will therefore be misplaced for anybody, including the APC, to surmise that Senator Mantu, in the said confession of rigging, acted on behalf of the PDP.

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“After all, in 2007, Senator Mantu lost his own senatorial election. What, then, happened to his rigging machinery, if he could not deliver himself.

“We urge the APC to manage its manifest failures in party administration as well as its incompetent, lack-lustre and wobbling governance which has grounded the nation’s economy and brought hunger and starvation to our people.”

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