The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has Atiku Abubakar, accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of recruiting China-trained operatives who will slow down card readers in his strongholds.
Speaking at the 84th emergency meeting of the PDP National Executive Council in Abuja, Atiku said that the operatives would hasten the speed of card readers in President Muhammadu Buhari’s strongholds to allow for more voters.
“We have just discovered that the APC has hired many of their operatives and have taken them to China to be trained, and they have been so trained, and they are back, and they are equipped with devices that are meant to slow or fasten our card readers.
“So, if you are in the South-south, South-east and North-central, you are likely to get your card readers to be slowed by those APC operatives.
“If you are from the North-west or North-east, the tendency is that they will use these machines to fast-track the readings of your card readers so that many of their supporters can vote while disenfranchising the other three zones.
“I thought you should know that we have supplied the information to the campaign council, and you will even see the copy of the machine which each and every one of those operatives is to hold.
“It is like a telephone but that is its job. I felt I should let you know, and you should be guided accordingly,” Atiku declared.
The PDP presidential candidate also alleged that there are plans by President Buhari to use the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the forthcoming elections in Borno, Adamawa and Kaduna states.
Atiku, in a statement signed by a spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, alleged that the plot was hatched at a closed-door meeting between the federal government and the three state governors in Abuja.
He cautioned: “Anything short of a simultaneous holding of the scheduled elections across the country on Saturday is not acceptable to us.
“The deal, cut at a meeting with some northern governors and service chiefs in the presidential villa in Abuja is simple: The FG will shift election in the northern states of Borno, Adamawa and Kaduna citing security concerns to provide the APC the opportunity use security agents to massively rig polls in those states at a later date.
“The implication of the plot is that President Buhari, for all his sweet words on ensuring free and fair elections and avoiding unethical measures to win at all costs, is ready to do anything just to capture Borno, Adamawa, Kaduna and other states using security reasons as a pretext.”