The Peoples Democratic Party has
begun reviewing its performance
in the March 28 presidential
election with a view to arriving at
what caused the defeat of
President Goodluck Jonathan.
It was gathered in Abuja on Sunday
night that top members of the
party were of the opinion that
some of them in the National
Working Committee and National
Executive Committee, especially
those from the North, covertly
played roles that contributed to
Jonathan’s loss.
A leader of the party said that such
members also connived with the All
Progressives Congress to ensure
that Jonathan was beaten at the
polls.
The source, who asked not to be
named, hinted that any indicted
members might be shown the way
out of the PDP.
The party leader said that many
of such members of the party
seemed united in their
determination to ensure that
Jonathan did not win the election.
The source added that it was
surprising that strongholds of the
PDP in the North such as Plateau,
Benue and Kogi states that have
large Christian population, could
fall to the APC.
He said, “The entire election was
lost long before March 28 because
northern elements, even those
within the PDP, ganged up against
President Jonathan. Even some of
our leaders in the NEC and NWC are
under watch because we believe
they also worked against the
President.
“There will be a meeting between
our chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, and
PDP state chairmen during the
week, but as it is we do not even
trust them.”
The source said some top party
officials were already calling for
the resignation of some NEC and
NWC members to pave the way for
the repositioning of the PDP.
Another top PDP source also
claimed that “some top northern
PDP members who worked against
Jonathan will be fished out and
expelled from the party.’’
“They have turned the PDP into a
southern party and the only way
we can survive as a strong
opposition is to expel the traitors
among us, ” the source added.
He also confirmed that “All the
state chairmen and Mu’azu will
meet in Abuja on Wednesday
(tomorrow) to do a post-mortem.
“They will also strategise on how to
win the supplementary elections in
Abia, Imo, Kogi and Taraba states.”
When contacted, the National
Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa
Metuh, said the leadership of the
party would “meet on Tuesday
(today) and Wednesday and the
issue (of anti-party activities) is one
of the things we are going to
discuss.”
“It is after this that we will know
what to do or actions to take,” he
added.
A former Senior Special Adviser to
President Jonathan on Political
Affairs, Ahmed Gulak, had on Friday
called for the resignation of the
National chairman of the party for
failing to lead Jonathan to victory.
He had said, “There is no party
chairman of the PDP since 1998 that
has led the party to such a
disastrous outing. As a result, the
national chairman should consider
himself one of those who have to
give way for the new party to come
up. In fact, he doesn’t need to be
told to turn in his resignation
letter.”
But Mu’azu denied the allegation
that he worked against the
President during the election,
saying it was an “allegation made
long ago without any substance.”
He also said that rather than quit
the PDP, he would stay behind and
reform the troubled party.
Fresh details however emerged on
Monday on how the presidential
election was won and lost. The
PUNCH gathered from a PDP
chieftain that his party and the
APC devised fresh methods on
how to outwit each other three
months before the March 28
elections.
The source, who is a member of the
PDP NWC, said a key component of
his party’s strategy centered
around the Permanent Voter Cards.
He said, “The whole thing started in
January when we observed that the
PVC distribution was skewed.
Already, we knew that President
Jonathan would not win any state
in the North-West which is the
biggest geopolitical zone in the
country because it has seven states.
“We in the PDP decided to focus on
Lagos and other states in the South
but the APC connived with the
Independent National Electoral
Commission when the distribution
of PVCs was moved to the local
government headquarters.
“APC leaders were allowed to
collect PVCs on behalf of their
members while the distribution of
PVCs in Igbo-dominated areas was
frustrated in Lagos. We in turn
quickly sponsored some protests in
Lagos but by the time the cards
arrived, the time was too short for
all of them (cards) to be
distributed.”
He claimed that when the
Presidency realised that the PVC
distribution was favouring the
APC, “a series of meetings was
held and it was decided that Prof.
Femi Mimiko, the younger brother
of the Ondo State Governor,
Olusegun Mimiko, should be made
the INEC chairman while Prof.
Attahiru Jega would be asked to go
on terminal leave.”
The source however said that
Jonathan was not ‘brave’ enough to
implement the idea because he
jettisoned it when some northern
elements in the PDP leaked the
information to the APC.
The source said, “There were some
northern elements in the party that
were always giving the APC
information whenever we ended
our meetings. We then conspired
to postpone the elections.”
He said the postponement of the
polls from February 14 was to
ensure that the PVCs or the card
readers were not used.
The source added, “We (PDP) spent
a considerable amount of money
trying to convince Nigerians to
reject their usage.
“We decided to use the newspaper
adverts and protests by the Oodua
Peoples Congress and the
Movement for the Actualisation of
the Sovereign State of Biafra to
enlighten people of the ‘danger’ of
using the PVCs or card readers but
the APC, which has a strong media
base was able to twist the issue to
its favour.
“The PDP Governors’ Forum also
met with civil society groups in
Lagos and gave out money to the
groups to continue to hold protests
in various parts of the country but
these people were not given
adequate media coverage.”
The source stated that even on
March 28, efforts were made to
manipulate the results of the polls.
The source said it was curious that
card readers worked ‘perfectly
well’ in the North but poorly in the
South where even the President
could not get accredited through
the device.
He said, “The truth is that we all
plotted our strategies to win the
elections but the APC did a better
job and I have to congratulate
them.
“We knew that our plot could only
work well where the APC is not
considered strong but we did not
expect huge figures from the North.
“The APC got 1.9 million votes in
Kano State with little or no voided
votes. How could that have been
possible? The APC also got millions
of votes in Kaduna and Kastina
states; so we responded by
ensuring that the figures in Rivers
State rose to 1.4 million. In reality,
less than 700,000 people voted in
that state due to violence.
“When we saw what was
happening, we reached out to
governors in the South-South to try
all they could to delay the collation
of results in their respective states
until all the northern states had
been announced.
“However, it was only Delta State
that succeeded and that was why
the results were announced the
following day and Jonathan got
about 1.2 million votes.”
INEC in Lagos had in a statement by
its Head, Public Affairs, Femi
Akinbiyi, denied allegation that it
deliberately deprived non-
indigenes of their PVCs or giving
preference to APC members.
The commission, however,
admitted that two of its officials
were sacked for denying non-
indigenes their PVCs in February
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
