The spokesperson for President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has said the People’s Democratic Party will not accept the use of card readers for the next general elections if the chances of the president being re-elected would be jeopardised by the use of card readers.
Fani-Kayode said this on Wednesday at a press conference in Abuja, where he pointed out that there was no plan to implicate the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega contrary to what the opposition party, APC, said.
Fani-Kayode said the card readers were untested in the country and may be counter-productive to free, fair and credible elections.
Fani-Kayode however further alleged that he was aware that the APC, with the connivance of some unnamed members of staff of INEC, is planning to use the card readers to frustrate accreditation of voters in some states.
The former Minister of Aviation said, “Our position on the card reader remains that the machine has not been tested in any election and 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 of the plot by the APC, working in cahoots with some strategically placed and retrogressive elements, to use the card readers to frustrate accreditation in some parts of the country while not enforcing strict use of the machine in some other parts.”
He added that “the truth is that if they go ahead with that wicked plot, the APC and its collaborators will only be preparing the ground for mass resistance.
“They can be rest assured that we will not sit by idly and allow such a thing to unfold.”
On the alleged plan to implicate Jega, Fani-Kayode said these allegations were nothing but “the paranoid ranting of a paranoid little man that is working for a paranoid party.”
He said the truth was that his party was “not strategising to shift the election dates. We are not trying to frame up Jega.”
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