The PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation has restated the party`s concern by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use electronic card reader in the forthcoming elections. Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, Director of Media and Publicity of the organisation, raised the concern at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday.

“Our position on the card reader remains that the machine has not been tested in any election. “There are bases for genuine concern over the use of the machine, for the first time, in a crucial election of this magnitude.

“We are aware that the All Progressives Congress (APC), is working in cahoots with some strategically placed elements to use the card readers to frustrate accreditation in some parts of the country’’, he said.

He, however, insisted on the deployment of soldiers in the forthcoming elections, as was done in the gubernatorial elections in Edo and Osun states, where the opposition won. Fani-Kayode said that the PDP-led Federal Government had no intention of interfering with INEC’s activities. “The PDP, having earned pass marks for overseeing the conduct of free and fair elections in the past, has no plans to compromise the coming elections’’, he said.

He debunked allegations by the APC that the PDP had plans to further shift the forthcoming general elections and compromise the electoral process. “The truth is that we are not strategising to shift the election dates. We are not trying to frame up Jega. “We have no plans to plant any illegal substance in the bags of any of the leaders of the APC whenever they travel.’’

He added that President Goodluck Jonathan was not planning to arrest opposition leaders before the elections as the APC alleged. Fani-Kayode stressed that the PDP was, however, not surprised that the APC was resorting to peddling falsehood in order to gain public sympathy. He alleged that the APC leaders had perfected a plan to rig the forthcoming elections, through the lopsided distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
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“They were very comfortable with the fact that 34 per cent of registered voters had not collected their PVCs as at Feb. 14 before the presidential election was postponed.’’ He expressed happiness that many eligible voters were now going out to collect their PVCs.