PDP DEMANDS TEST-RUN OF CARD READERS, OTHERS

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Adamu Mu'azu, has said the use of Electronic Management Tool to be used for the 2015 elections is welcome but that the country is not ready to be used as a guinea pig.

He said the Independent National Electoral Commission must ensure a successful test-run before approving it for use in the elections.

Mu'azu stressed in a statement that INEC management must get everything right before introducing the measure.

He was quoted in a statement to have spoken when a delegation of Africa Union Election Observers, led by AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, called on him in his office at Wadata House in Wuse Zone 5.

Abdullahi said they were impressed seeing no street fighting or protest trailing the postponement, adding that it was a sign of maturity of Nigerians and the depth of democratic practice in the country.

The team leader, who was a former Commissioner in Mu'azu's cabinet when he was governor for Bauchi State between 1999 and 2007, was accompanied on the visit by five members of the AU observer mission to monitor the March 28 elections.

Mu'azu said, "What is happening today in INEC has been highlighted to them via letters from our party to his office on so many issues including the fraud of PVC we anticipated, including the manipulation. We all said this in writing to INEC.

"It is because we are the ruling party, we don't want to be unruly because if we were the opposition, we would make a lot of noise and say a lot of things."

"In their own sense of judgment, how does Professor (Attahiru) Jega, who is the leader of INEC, exonerate himself from disenfranchising 23 million Nigerians and telling the world that he is ready for elections; and we are saying that he is not ready, 23 million out of the 68 million registered voters, by his personal submission in the Council of State that was held last week to review the preparedness or otherwise of INEC to conduct the election. Twenty three million PVCs were either produced and not distributed or not produced at all.

"This must be highlighted and made known to the world. Your report must be very explicit to explain what has happened. He is lying.

"We must not have 100 per cent as the threshold for distribution and collection but 23 million out of 68 million eligible voters or 34 per cent as the INEC Chairman himself confirmed is unacceptable by any standard."