Nigeria's ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), today insisted that Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose was not speaking on behalf of the party on the call for the removal of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega.
It would be recalled that the Ekiti Governor had called for the removal of Jega, with an addition that if President Goodluck Jonathan goes ahead to remove him, heaven will not fall.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja, the ruling party's Deputy National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, argued that, "We are not fighting Jega. The opinion expressed by the governor of Ekiti State on the INEC chairman remains his own. He’s not speaking for the party.
"There is no plan to remove Jega. The party has absolute confidence in INEC and its leadership.
"We won’t bribe voters to return the President into office. As a matter of fact, we have never bribed voters before, during or after elections."
While stating that claims that the PDP was afraid of the use of Permanent Voter Cars (PVC) and card readers were not true, Secondus said, "We are not jittery over the use of card readers. Not at all. You know this is the first time that the party is going to try this technology.
"I think that this misinformation by APC must be corrected. The PDP is not against card readers. The PDP believes that INEC should test it and it should be in perfect condition, so that we don’t run into problems.
"So that on that day, we don’t have problems of it working in some areas and in other areas it won’t work. Since it is the first time we will adopt this technology, it should be in perfect condition so that people will not have cause to complain.
"This is the position of the party and I want to make it clear to Nigerians that the PDP is not against the card reader but we urge INEC to test run them so that they will be in perfect condition on election days."
Photo credit: Thisday
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