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INEC
Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega
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They
distanced themselves from the allegation, with the PDP challenging INEC to
mention names of political parties that budget money for rigging elections.
Reacting to
the comments by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, at a conference in
Abuja on Monday that political parties made monetary provisions to bribe INEC
officials, the party said given the electoral reforms initiated by President
Goodluck Jonathan, INEC officials cannot influence elections.
PDP’s
National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, told THISDAY in Abuja that this was
demonstrated in the results of the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo
States in which even the candidates of the PDP lost despite the fact that
Jonathan campaigned for them.
He also
chided the former National Chairman of the party, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, who
also at the conference criticised PDP for losing focus and for allowing
moneybags to hijack the party.
He said one
of the reasons Nwodo was removed from office was his futile attempt to hijack
the party in his home state, Enugu.
He said:
“We heard what the INEC chairman said that some political parties bribe INEC
officials to help rig or influence elections, but our response to this is that
the INEC chairman should be honourable enough to mention the names of the
political parties involved.
“Under the
circumstances of transparent and fair elections, INEC officials can no longer
rig or influence elections.”
He urged INEC
to mention the names of political parties that offered bribes to it, so that it
would enable PDP to reclaim the two states.
On the
comment by Nwodo that PDP had been hijacked by moneybags, Metuh said: “PDP is
very accommodative and this explains why the party still accepted members like
Nwodo that took the party to court back into its fold to become the national
chairman.
“Let it be
on the record that PDP is a mass movement and therefore, there is no truth that
the party has been hijacked by moneybags or a clique. It was Nwodo that made a
failed attempt to hijack the PDP in Enugu State.
“The people
of the state resisted him. He cannot turn around and accuse the party of being
hijacked by moneybags, when he was the person that made a failed attempt to take
over the party in Enugu State and the people resisted.”
Metuh
warned Nwodo, who is a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and
Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party, against what he described as unguarded
comments, adding that the party has procedures for members to channel their
grievances, if any.
On the
comments by the National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Bola
Tinubu, that the opposition would dethrone PDP in 2015, Metuh said: “This boast
is a challenge to us and let it be known that the religious and ethnic antics
of the opposition are not tantamount to a viable opposition.
“We are
ready for the opposition political parties come 2015 and we assure them that
the elections in 2015 will be free and fair and PDP looks forward to 2015 so
that this matter would be settled on which political party is acceptable to the
people.”
Also, the
National Publicity Secretary of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Chief
Emma Eneukwu, denied that the party has ever made monetary provisions to bribe
INEC officials and will never do so.
According
to him, “If we are budgeting to bribe INEC, we will not be diminishing the way
we are in some states. If there is any bribing, then it is done by PDP, not my
party.
“We only
budget for our agents, but budgeting for INEC, it is clearly the practice of
the PDP.”
On his
part, the National Chairman of Labour Party (LP), Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, said the
allegation was unfounded but that it is not too difficult for Jega to call a
spade a spade.
He said
Jega must have been referring to the big political parties that have money and
not small parties like LP that is struggling to meet its financial obligations.
“For him to
say such a thing means he must have experienced such pressure from moneybags in
the big political parties,” he added.
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