Daily Trust

PDP: Mantu never rigged elections for us

- By Saawua Terzungwe

Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have denied claim by a former deputy Senate president, Ibrahim Mantu that he rigged elections for the party since 1998.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiy­an, in a statement yesterday said Mantu’s reported claim was personal to him and had nothing to do with the PDP, as the party has never directed any of its members to rig election on its behalf.

“Senator Mantu spoke about his personal activities and tendencies in the elections, where he participat­ed. The PDP has never directed or had any pact with him to rig election on its behalf. Never!

“What, then, happened to his rigging machinery, if he could not deliver himself? Individual­s run their elections on the platform of political parties once they emerge as candidates. In the PDP, candidates are issued with the party’s Code of Conduct containing the basic rules of electionee­ring engagement­s.

“There is nowhere in this rules of engagement where candidates or party members are directed to rig elections on behalf of the party. If any member’s conduct transgress­ed these basic rules of engagement, that individual did not act on behalf of the PDP, and as such the party cannot be vicariousl­y held responsibl­e.

“It will therefore be misplaced for anybody, including the APC, to surmise that Senator Mantu, in the said confession of rigging, acted on behalf of the PDP.

“We urge the APC to manage its manifest failures in party administra­tion, as well as its incompeten­t, lack-lustre and wobbling governance which has grounded the nation’s economy and brought hunger and starvation to our peopleý,” the PDP said.

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