PDP reacts to Mantu's claims he rigged elections for the opposition party when it was in power

macfranc007 April 02, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Naija news 24/7 Akinyemi Akinrujomu

- PDP says Mantu's claims were personal to him and did not have anything to do with the opposition party

- The party notes that it had never encouraged members to rig elections on its behalf since its creation

- PDP also rejects calls by the APC for more opposition members to come forward with confessions

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed claims by former Senate President Ibrahim Mantu's that he rigged elections for the opposition party when it was in power.

In a statement signed by the PDP's National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan on Sunday, April 1, the party said Senator Mantu’s claims were "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, at any point since its formation".

The statement added: "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!

"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."

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The opposition party wondered why Mantu could not save himself at the polls in 2007 elections if he indeed had perfected how to rig elections for the PDP.

It said: "After all, in 2007, Senator Mantu lost his own senatorial election. What, then, happened to his rigging machinery, if he could not deliver himself.

"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 people."

NAIJ.com had earlier reported that Senator Mantu, who was a senator on the platform of the PDP ‘confessed the truth’ during an interview on Hard Copy, a Channels Television programme that aired on Friday, March 30.

During the interview, Mantu, who is also a former member of the PDP’s Board of Trustees, said he was actively involved in compromising election officials, security officers and even agents of rival parties to either assist in rigging candidates of the PDP to victory or look the other way in cases of obvious rigging.

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