FG accuses PDP of plan to set up parallel electoral body

The Federal Government, yesterday, accused the PDP of alleged plan to set up a parallel electoral body for the coming elections to collate results of tomorrow’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

The FG said PDP wanted to create anarchy in the country; hence the setting up of the collation centre having realized that it could not win in a free, fair and peaceful election.

Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed said this in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital at a press conference shortly after an interactive session with retirees and pensioners in the state.

Mohammed added that the alarm “Is in line with the warning we have been issuing all along, that the PDP, jittery at the fate that is about to befall it and desperate to grab power at all costs, will seek to scuttle the elections, failing which it will work to discredit the results.”

According to him, “The latest manifestation of this desperation was revealed at a press conference by the PDP on Wednesday, during which the party said it would set up a parallel electoral body, under the tag of Parallel Voting Tabulation (PVT) system.

“The PDP said clearly that PVT is a tool that will determine whether or not it accepts the results of the elections. Now, this is anarchy. Yes, it is standard practice for political parties to have their own monitoring systems during elections,” he said.

“What is not standard is to set up a pseudo electoral commission and imbue it with the power to collate and announce results. That’s precisely what the PDP is doing under the guise of PVT. And this is totally unacceptable,” he said.

Similarly, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, said the party had received credible intelligence on some of PDP’s plans ahead of the elections, following the leaked confidential report by the foreign elections strategists/consultants contracted by the PDP which stated that the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar would lose the forthcoming elections.

Issa-Onilu said the arson attacks on some facilities of INEC, syndicated fake news and planted false reports on the elections were part of the PDP’s strategies ahead of the elections.

“The confidential report by the foreign elections strategists/consultants has recommended that the PDP take ‘urgent steps to rectify the situation,’” he said.