PDP, INEC have join to rig 2015 elections – Tinubu

A National leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, has accused the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, of uniting with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to rig the 2015 elections in the state and ensure APC doesn’t emerge victorious. 

According to him, the same way three parties, ACN, ANPP and CPC merged to form APC and challenge PDP, that’s the same way INEC also merged with PDP to rig the 2015 elections. 

Tinubu said this while speaking during a press conference alongside State leaders of the party at the State Secretariat of the APC at Acme Road, Ogba, to address the shoddy Permanent Voter’s Card distribution in Lagos on Saturday. 

“Just as we (APC) merged to form a formidable opposition party, they have merged with Jonathan to form a formidable rigging machine. 

“This exercise is a colossal failure. INEC has the responsibility to give us a date when the exercise would start which they did. They were the ones that picked the date. On the eve of the exercise, they announced they could only carry out the exercise in 11 Local Government Areas out of the 20 recognised by the Federal Government. 

“Rather than outright boycott, we endured the frustration and appealed to the public to participate. Our field report and personal experiences indicated that the exercise in those 11 LGAs failed and it is unacceptable. In some instances, you didn’t find INEC and then in some, they did not start on time,” Tinubu said. 

He also stated that if four months to the election, INEC hasn’t gotten its game right, it was safe to say that the commission could not conduct a free and fair election next year. 

On the number of registered voters in Lagos from 6.2 million to 4.8 million, Tinubu said INEC’s explanation that it reduced the figure because there were many cases of double registration in 2011 was not acceptable. 

“You cannot automatically, without a court of law, disqualify them, you can only suspend them and give them another opportunity to register. To me, this exercise has failed, it is not acceptable, and we consider it as a rigging exercise. INEC has colluded with the presidency and the opposing party to rig the election from the data to the end,” he added.