APC accuses PDP of plot to sabotage Card Readers

FROM the streets and the court rooms, the battle against the Card Reader is set to move into another realm – technology.

The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) insists the Card Reader will make the March 28 and April 11 elections credible as it will, among others, fasten and smoothen accreditation.

But the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rejects the machine, saying little is known about its workings.

Amid the arguments, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which supports the use of the Card Reader, is accusing the President Goodluck Jonathan administration and the PDP of planning to jam the machine on voting day.

For the job, said the APC, an Israeli has been hired.

He, according to the party, has developed three prototype Card Reader jammers (25 metres, 50 metres and 100 metres range) to be carried in the pockets of trusted PDP chiefs on election day to disable Card Readers.

It is all to justify the PDP’s fears about the Card Reader, the APC said.

‘’We can authoritatively inform Nigerians that the morbid fear of card readers by the Jonathan Administration and the PDP has now been translated into concrete action: They have hired an Israeli to do the dirty job of jamming the card readers,’’ the party said in a statement issued yesterday in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

‘’To those who might accuse us of crying wolf, they should realise that every alarm we have raised in the past has been true, including that the Jonathan Administration was pushing for the postponement of

the elections and that they are mortally afraid of the use of PVCs and card readers.”

APC said besides disabling the card readers, the jammers will also disable all telephones, iPads, etc within the states radius of those carrying them on their persons.

It said an order had been placed for 75,000 pieces of the jammers at $ 200 per piece, bringing the total cost to $15 million. The jammers will be air freighted to Nigeria next week, said the APC.

‘’The plan is to deploy the card jammers to the areas deemed to be the strongholds of the APC, such as the North-west, Northeast, North-central and the South-west.

‘’It is the planned procurement of the jammers that has given the confidence to the Administration and party officials to continuously boast that Buhari will never rule Nigeria, and also the reason why a chieftain of the PDP boasted last week that the card readers won’t work, thus advising INEC to make alternative arrangements,’’ the APC said.

The party said the Israeli, who has agreed to do the dirty job for a desperate Jonathan Administration and the PDP, is an enemy of Nigeria and Nigerians, who does not mind if the nation burns, as long as he has collected his pay.

It said because the opposition party has become a movement which is being propelled by the people themselves, it is difficult, if not impossible, for the Jonathan sdministration and the PDP to succeed in

their devilish intentions of rigging, sabotaging or scuttling the elections.

‘’We have consistently said power resides in the people, irrespective of what the government of the day might think. When the people are determined to vote out any government, no amount of money, evil plots and shenanigans can save that government, as the Jonathan Administration will find out in two weeks,’’ APC said.

The PDP denied it all as “false alarms aimed at throwing the polity into chaos and wreck the electoral process”.

A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh also accused the opposition of engaging in a “dangerous mind game”.

The PDP accused APC of “using wild allegations in a bid to cause panic, balkanise the nation and create the way for a reign of anarchy in the country”.

The statement went on: “For the APC, it has become a matter of ‘if we can’t have it, then let’s destroy it’. In the last couple of weeks, this opposition party and its leaders have engaged in dishing out dangerous false alarms in a bid to discredit the electoral process, heighten tension, create fear in the minds of the people and push the polity to the brinks.

The PDP described as false alarm the reported plot to kill the leader of the opposition, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, presidential standard bearer, General Muhammadu Buhari.

“Also, on the same March 15, the APC, in a yet another statement, falsely claimed that the Federal Government paid N9 billion to ethnic militias to foment trouble, before, during and after the general elections. This was immediately followed by a release on Monday, March 16, in which the opposition, in their unrelenting effort to further discredit the process, alleged that the Federal Government has hired an Israeli expert, Gyora Berger, to sabotage card readers on election day.

“In the same vein, on March 4, 2015, the APC released a false alarm, claiming that there were plots by the Federal Government to frame its leaders and … sensitive INEC officials and manipulate the electoral process. This is in addition to another statement on March 9 in which it alleged plots to harass its financiers and cripple its operations ahead of elections.

“We are aware that the APC has lined up many of such false allegations and nuisance alarms, which would be methodologically released to the public to swell the tension as the elections draw nearer.”

The PDP charged its members to remain focused on the campaigns and not to allow themselves to be distracted, saying the party enjoys the support and confidence of majority of Nigerians.

The party said it was committed to issue driven campaigns, adding that it would leverage on the “enviable records” of achievements of the standard bearer, President Goodluck Jonathan, “for which Nigerians are determined to give him a deserving second chance”.