PDP to Nigerians: Defend your votes

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged Nigerians to come out en masse on election day to cast their votes, monitor all activities around their polling units and protect their votes.
The Director, Media and Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, gave the advice at a news conference on Sunday in Abuja.
Ologbondiyan, who is also the PDP National Publicity Secretary, said that the call was important as available information to the party revealed that there were attempts to rig the elections.
He said that the PDP had resolved to unbridle, in full measure, all defence machinery legitimately available to it, including its numerical strength, in marching with millions of Nigerians across the nation to defend Nigerians votes.
“In this regard, the PDP urges all its members and supporters, in their millions, to politically occupy and become extra vigilant by closely monitoring all electoral activities around their polling centres.
“Our members and supporters are hereby directed to get prepared to arrive at their polling centres very early on the day of election; monitor the activities of electoral officers, note all strange faces and resist any attempt by any alien or unregistered person to vote.
“Our members and supporters are further directed to remain at the polling center after casting their votes, monitor the collation of result, use all means available to defend all our votes to the last and ensure that no result is altered’’.
Ologbondiyan added that the PDP was ready to confront any security force or thugs that wanted to be willing tool to rig the elections.
“For this, we charge our members and supporters to use every means available to them legitimately in a democracy to defend themselves and resist all acts of intimidation.
“Finally, the PDP urges all members and supporters to continue to be alert and await further directives ahead of the elections’’.
Ologbondiyan recalled that PDP gave Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) a 48-hour ultimatum to make public the list of all officials and ad hoc staff that would participate in the Feb. 16 Presidential election at all levels, for verification by stakeholders.
He said PDP had also alerted Nigerians of alleged plots to manipulate the smart card readers so as to substitute biometric accreditation with manual verification and pave the way for mass rigging.