PDP drags Buhari to tribunal •Moves to nullify 6m CPC votes •To prove underage voting, voter intimidation, rigging in his stronghold

Posted by admin CPC (Congress 4 Progressive Change), EFCC Politics, Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Latest Politics, Muhammadu Buhari (1983-85), Party Politics, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), Presidency, Top Stories Sunday, May 8th, 2011

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) moved swiftly to respond to claims of underhand occurrences in the last presidential election by raising four points which it believed would easily knock off the petition by the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive change (CPC), General Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari had on Friday filed a notice at the Presidential Election Tribunal, seeking access to election materials and seeking the nod of the tribunal to allow him bring forensic experts to analyse the votes.

Sources in the party and the Presidency, however, said on Saturday that the PDP had been busy assembling points and facts that would not only nullify Buhari’s claims, but also show that his over 12 million votes were garnered through untoward means.

“We are not only out to defend that suit, but also to defend our votes and the mandate clearly given to us by Nigerians. We are equally out to show the world that our opponent gained the votes ascribed to them through untoward means,” said a source close to the legal coordinating team of the PDP and the Presidency.

The source said the PDP leadership had been mandated to assemble the best team of legal minds that would prosecute the election petition.

The source stated that the facts that had been established against Buhari and the CPC included underage voting, religious and ethnic intimidation of voters, thuggery, through physical assault on many PDP members in CPC strongholds, and what the PDP called “direct fraud.”

Sunday Tribune gathered that the PDP has decided to analyse the claims credited to the presidential candidate of the CPC only two hours into voting on April 16.

The source stated that Buhari was quoted as telling an international broadcast medium that election was being rigged with the aide of computer, whereas, the election was done manually. PDP, according to the source, is out to show that the CPC cried foul to divert attention so as to provide avenue for its men to manipulate the process.

The PDP chieftain also said former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, had also told his audience in the United States, while the results of the presidential election was being collated, that the PDP rigged and that he was reeling out unofficial figures to the international community, even while the electoral body had not announced the results.

The source said the declarations by el-Rufai and Buhari were evidence that the CPC tampered with the system and got undue advantage over the PDP.

The source said the PDP had gathered video and still pictures of the election malpractices undertaken by Buhari and the CPC during the April 16 election.

Said another source: “We have amassed evidence against the CPC and we are not just sitting by after the well-deserved victory given to the PDP by Nigerians. It will shock them this time.”

He further stated that the PDP was able to win the election because of the vigilance of many voters in the city centres.

“The CPC cannot stop Nigeria’s march towards greatness and transformation, which the PDP has flagged off under President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Rather than attempt to draw the nation back into arguments of religion and region, Buhari and the CPC need to join hands with patriots to build a united Nigeria,” the source said further.

Besides the question marks on Buhari’s comments and the established use of underaged voters by the CPC, it was learnt that the PDP has also concluded arrangements to engage forensic experts who would analyse the votes in his strongholds and weed out not less than six million of his total votes.

“Our intention is to weed out all votes of underaged persons in the CPC votes. They have a preponderance of this in states we have marked out and we intend to get his votes reduced to about six million,” the source said.wp_posts