INEC accuses PDP of hate speech

The PDP had earlier accused the electoral body of planning to rig elections for the All Progressives Congress (APC) by reportedly setting up polling booths in camps belonging to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in the North.

Vanguard reports that PDP’s spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan also issued a statement saying Nigerians will not accept any 'fabricated' result.

An excerpt of the statement reads: “For the purposes of emphasis, the PDP rejects all forms of fraudulent ‘special arrangements’ tailored to rig this election. Our party insists that elections must only hold in statutorily designated polling centers across our country. The PDP and indeed, Nigerians are not ready to accept any fabricated result from any illegal polling center created to assist President Buhari to rig the election”

INEC reacts

In its reaction, INEC debunked the allegation, describing it as hate speech. The electoral body also said that the PDP is putting the lives of its staff at risk.

Speaking further, Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said “I find it distasteful that Mr Kola Ologbondiyan can deliberately embark on peddling complete falsehood about the Independent National Electoral Commission in this manner, with the sole intent of discrediting all the good efforts being put in place to ensure credible 2019 General Elections.

“The story about the possibility of so called Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) located in Chad and Niger republic voting in the 2019 general elections was as a result of a misrepresentation of facts by a newspaper in its story on the Validation Conference in respect of the Framework for Voting for Internally Displaced Persons, held on12th December in Abuja, for which the Commission had to promptly issue a rebuttal.

“Everybody knows that displaced persons living in foreign countries cannot be regarded as IDPs but refugees and there is no provision in our laws for any Nigerian living outside Nigeria to vote during the 2019 general elections.

“But Kola Ologbondiyan has continued to insist that the Commission is planning to establish 30,000 polling units and give the so-called IDPs in foreign countries the opportunity to vote in the general elections.

“What this man is doing, by implication, is to put the lives of INEC permanent and adhoc staff, especially the young National Youth Service Corps members at risk during the 2019 general elections with his continuous portrayal of the Commission as untrustworthy and fraudulent.

“This is not what Nigerians need at this time. This is certainly not the way to be an excellent spokesperson.

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“INEC is not a political party. The Commission is not planning to establish any new polling units anywhere. Our only interest is to conduct free, fair and credible general elections in 2019 and we require the cooperation of all stakeholders, including political parties, to achieve this objective.

“My strong advice to Kola Ologbodiyan is that he should stop what I can safely describe as hate speech against INEC, for the good of the country and democracy.”

The chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondushad earlier accused the electoral body of preparing special card readers and result sheets for the ruling APC ahead of the 2019 general elections.