Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo has said that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not afraid of the use of the card reader by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the March/April general elections but that the party’s concern is that no eligible voter should be disenfranchised.
The Vice President spoke today against the backdrop of the perceived opposition of the PDP to the use of the card reader, when he met with members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kano State chapter.
“One thing I will tell you is that PDP is not afraid of anything, not even the card reader. We are not afraid of the card reader. To be very honest, what we want is free and fair elections.
“We don’t want anything to go wrong through the use of the card reader. In one of the States, Ebonyi State, the INEC commissioner there said he is going to repeat the testing and in so many other states there have been problems with the card readersn to the extent that INEC itself has introduced an incidence form. That is why we are saying, look let’s do this thing properly.”
Vice President Namadi Sambo said that since 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan has championed free, fair and credible elections, saying that the administration has always emphasised on one man one vote, one woman one vote and one youth one vote.
Namadi Sambo said that PDP, will win the general elections because it is a party of Nigeria, adding that the party exists in every local government, every ward and every polling unit.
According to him, PDP has a chairman, secretary and at least 12 members of the executive, adding: “so we are everywhere, and there is no party that is like PDP. PDP has remained as PDP since 1998 to date. We have never changed our colour or our name. We are the party for Nigeria and we are Nigerians.”
Namadi Sambo said that the party believe in the rule of law, which was why it’s government had signed the Freedom of Information Act.
“Even to address the issue of corruption, you must start from a free, fair and credible elections. If you don’t do it, you have not started to address corruption.”
The Vice President said the aim of the meeting was to inform the journalists on the inroads the administration had made in positively transforming the socio economic well-being of Nigerians, emphasising that the administration had delivered on all its campaign promises. [myad]
