Nigeria’s Vice President, Namadi Sambo has come out to rebuff claims that his party, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was against the use of card readers for the forthcoming general elections, explaining that the PDP was only interested in the conduction of free, fair and credible elections.
Speaking at a parley with the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Kano on Thursday, March 12, 2015, Sambo noted that the mock elections held in some states last weekend showed flaws in the use of the card readers.
He said: “There is nothing wrong with the use of card readers but our concern is free, fair and credible election.
“We don’t want anything to go wrong through the use of the card readers. PDP is not afraid of anything. We are only saying, let us do this thing properly.
“In Ebonyi state, the INEC commissioner said he is going to repeat the testing and in so many other states there have been problems with the card readers, to the extent that INEC itself has introduced an incidence form.”
Still on the forthcoming elections, Sambo said the postponement of the polls was a blessing as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not ready to conduct elections at the earlier scheduled date, adding that millions of Nigerians would have been disenfranchised.
“The postponement of the election has been a blessing to Nigerians. INEC extended the period for the distribution of the PVCs to March 22, otherwise 23 million Nigerians would have been short changed,” he posited.
The Vice-President also addressed the issue of insurgency in the country, stressing that this was not a time to politicise the issue of terrorism, but a time for all Nigerian s to collectively support the counter-terror onslaught.
His words: “All Nigerians must come together to address this issue. It is the only way the issue can be addressed. Is it the government of Nigeria that sent Boko Haram to other countries like Chad, Niger Republic and Cameroun?”
