PDP Wants Evidence of Rigging

CPC’s allegations unfounded – Jega

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has challenged the Congress for Progressive Change’s, presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to produce evidence that the presidential poll was rigged in favour of its candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan.
The party said that Buhari’s allegations of rigging, baseless as they are, amounted to ‘sour grapes’ , even as it says that Jonathan’s mandate was one that ran across the entire nation.
Addressing a press conference yesterday at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, national chairman of the party, Dr Bello Haliru Mohammed described the attitude of the CPC and its presidential candidate as typical of the Nigerian politician who would always cry wolf when he loses and election.
“It is time we started applauding our democratic process, especially from the backdrop of the quality we saw in this election. We have to be responsible politicians and extricate ourselves from some of these defective traits. Our elections clearly were free and fair as attested to by all, including patriotic Nigerians and international observers.
“So if Buhari or anyone else has evidence that the PDP rigged the elections as they are alleging, they should produce that evidence and stop attempts to discredit a process which has been adjudged to be the best in our recent democratic history,’’ the chairman said.
While describing Jonathan’s mandate as that which symbolised shared destiny and brotherhood, the party commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for surmounting all challenges to give Nigerians liberty to express themselves.
“This mandate, freely given to our candidate symbolizes our shared destiny and brotherhood. It clearly shows that the PDP did not make mistake when we put forward the candidature of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and Arc. Namadi Sambo. We are indeed gratified and humbled by the nationwide acceptability of our presidential candidate at this critical stage of our nation’s history.
“In the same vein, the national working committee (NWC) also congratulates the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, led by Prof. Attahiru Jega for conducting a transparent exercise that has rekindled the faith of the ordinary Nigerian in the sanctity of the ballot. We commend INEC for standing firm and surmounting all challenges to give Nigerians a voice to freely express themselves,’’ the chairman said.
Commiserating with families of those who were wounded or lost their lives in the crises that engulfed parts of Northern Nigeria, the PDP condemned the violence whilst describing it as ‘unwarranted and mindless carnage’.
The party said that it welcomed the president’s decision to institute a judicial inquiry and punish those behind it appropriately and noted that it remained undaunted in its determination to ensure that the rights of Nigerians to elect their leaders could not be compromised.
“We are alarmed at the extent of bloodletting and destruction targeted at PDP leaders, members, government institutions, traditional rulers and even youth corps members.
“We remain undaunted in our determination to ensure that the right of all Nigerians to elect their leaders is never compromised,’’ the chairman said.
The party finally called on all supporters to come out en masse and vote for it and its candidates in the governorship/state assembly polls slated for Tuesday next week.
Meanwhile, the chairman of INEC Professor Attahiru Jega, has faulted the claim of the CPC presidential candidate General Buhari, that the poll was characterised with irregularities, and said the allegations were “totally unfounded.”
The CPC had accused INEC that the Excel sheets used in collating results from Katsina and Kano state were designed to reduce its votes by as much as 40 per cent.
But Jega said the accusation was unfounded since, according to him, the collation process at the state level is a manual process which required that state collation officers enter results from local government collation centres by hand.
He said the excel sheet that had become a question of contention was deployed as a means of cross checking results at the national collation centre in Abuja.
“For administrative purposes, we designed an excel sheet to enable us to simultaneously enter the results as they are announced by the local government collation officers.
The INEC chairman said the rationale behind creating the excel sheet was in two folds.
“We wanted a means of cross-checking the entries and computations done manually on form EC.8D for accuracy.
He also said the excel sheets was also deployed as a means of authenticating the results.
“It was not a substitute for Form EC.8D which was filled manually and signed by the state collation officer and party agents present at the state collation centres, and which is the legally admissible results for return.”
Jega regretted that there were errors recorded in writing the Excel formulae in a number of local governments in Kano and Katsina states.
“What happened in Kano and Katsina States was that in writing the Excel formulae errors were made in the number of local governments in those states. Consequently, the totals were generally less than what was manually entered in Form EC.8D because the Excel formula was not summing results for all the LGAs in the sheets.”
“Expectedly, the fault was immediately detected by cross-checking the formulae in the sheets. Our staff in the states brought this to the attention of the headquarters and the formulae were immediately corrected. The obvious evidence that this correction was made was that the figures in Form EC.8D, which was duly signed by party agents of CPC in both states, corresponded to our Excel sheets during the national collation in Abuja. I should say that before this error was corrected, it affected the scores of all the parties in the excluded local government areas, not the CPC’s alone.”
Jega also thrashed out CPC’s demands for forensic investigations of some election results in some areas particularly Enugu state, in view of alleged massive thumb printing and ballot box stuffing.
“They demanded that INEC suspend the collation of the Presidential Results and “fly-in” the ballot boxes from Enugu for them to demonstrate that this was the case. It is clearly impracticable to do this, for it could open a deluge of requests which conceivably could involve the ballot papers used in the 119,973 Polling Units across the country.
“Moreover, the Form EC.8D from Enugu State was duly signed by the CPC Agent. Let me reassure all concerned that we are willing to ensure that all allegations of misconduct are properly investigated.
“But there are issues beyond our remit, which can only be addressed by the Electoral Tribunals. For instance, finding identical thumbprints is a complex forensic process which INEC is not in a position to conduct.
“It should not be seen that we are taking issues with one party. I have addressed these because they seem to be the most prominent allegations against the Commission.