The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) has responded to allegations by the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) that the INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, was under pressure to make moves that will encourage the rigging during the 2019 elections.
The Peoples Democratic party (PDP) has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to distance itself from an alleged plot to compromise the Electoral Guidelines and pave the way for the alteration of the forthcoming general elections results.
The Director, Media and Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, gave the advise at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja and warned the INEC to resist temptations to encourage election rigging in 2019.
Ologbondiyan alleged that Nigerians were already aware that the commission’s Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, was under pressure to drop the display of results at the polling units as well as the electronic transmission of polled figures to the server of the electoral umpire from its guidelines.
He said that the display of results at the polling units ensured that results posted at all levels remained those originally announced at the various polling units, while the electronic transmission to INEC server ensured that the results from the polling centres were not tampered with.
“Prof. Yakubu must not succumb to the pressure of the Buhari Presidency, because doing so will definitely set him on a collision course with Nigerians,” he said
However, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, dismissed the allegations and urged the PDP to provide the evidence in its possession to prove them.
“Otherwise, the PDP should cure itself of this recurring hallucination which I am sure Nigerians no longer buy. Certainly, INEC is not into the rigging business,” he said.
