The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it has perfected plans to ensure that no party is able to manipulate the outcome of Saturday’s presidential election.
Outlining its plan at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, former Minister of Aviation, Campaign Spokesperson and Chairman of Strategy Committee of the PDP Presidential Campaign, Osita Chidoka, revealed that the party has deployed Parallel Voting Tabulation (PVT) across the country to hold the nation’s electoral body accountable
He explained that the PVT is “a scientifically proven, best practice technique, to hold election authorities accountable, particularly when there is a lack of trust, and the results are highly contested.”
According to him, the PVT will assure that PDP partisans accept the results of the election and that the country remains peaceful and respectful of its differences.
While noting that civil societies are deploying the same tools, Chidoka said the PDP’s methodology accounts for several different scenarios to ensure continued collation of the results in the event of any disruptions with the collation process.
He added: “Hard copies of the signed voter tally provided to all party agents by the INEC officers, will be transported to the central command centre should future disputes need to be reconciled.”
He said the PDP has also set up a national network of fully equipped Situation Rooms and call centres, adding: “PDP has established a reporting system for the PVT through the wards, to the district headquarters, to the States to the national tally centre.
“The system has redundancies built at all levels – in the event of internet or communications shutdown or failure or any other eventualities.
“The scope of the effort is historic for Nigeria, and it will provide us with statistical certainty to accept or challenge the declared results.”
He further revealed that the PDP is deploying 176,000 trained party agents to each of the 176,000 polling units across the country.
According to him, the agents who have been trained in the electoral process, understand their rights to be present and have data and SMS technologies to report the results as they are certified by the NEC officers at the polling units in real-time.
He also stated: “The PDP has pivoted from recruiting first-time polling agents to recruiting high quality, educated individuals whose maturity and experience will help them manage and mitigate against challenges on election day.
“Systems tests, and dry runs being conducted to ensure our system is secure and fully integrated, from the polling unit all the way through to party leadership.
“A nation-wide hotline for the public to report malpractice launched:
“The PDP is providing multiple-line inbound call centre linked to a single hotline number: 097 000 551 for voters to report any incidence of violence or electoral malpractice.
“The call centre will be able to identify issues to escalate serious concerns to both the Party headquarters and other relevant authorities as appropriate.”
While noting that the party has launched a #DefendYourVote campaign targeting the youth, he commended Nigeria’s top musical talent, Davido, for his popular #DefendYourVote videos which are trending on social media and WhatsApp.
The former minister assured that Nigerians can be confident that by turning out on Saturday their vote will count.
He urged citizens to go to the polls confident that the electoral process will be upheld based on our laws and our constitution.
The party spokesman remarked that the PDP is pleased with the signing of The National Peace Accord by all the political parties, hoping that they will honour their shared commitment.
He expresses confidence that election officials and security services will do their duty in accordance with their oaths and obligations.
Chidoka particularly reminded the Inspector General of Police that his wide international experience places him with a historic burden to ensure that security agencies strictly abide by the election code of conduct and rules of engagement.
The campaign spokesman assured Nigerians that they have a candidate in Atiku Abubakar who is “so prepared to win the election and get Nigeria working again.”
He, however, warned that there will be consequences if the election is rigged
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