The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has debunked rumours that former Senate President Ibrahim Mantu rigged elections in its favour.
The party was reacting to the advice by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that Nigerian’s should learn from Mantu’s claims on how he rigged elections.
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said Mantu’s claims were personal to him and had nothing to do with the PDP. He said the party had never directed any of its members to rig election on its behalf, at any point since its formation.
Mantu spoke about his personal activities and tendencies in the elections he participated in.
The statement reads: “Individuals run their elections on the platform of political parties once they emerge as candidates. In the PDP, candidates are issued with the party’s Code of Conduct containing the basic rules of electioneering engagements.
“There is nowhere in the rule of engagement where candidates or party members are directed to rig elections on the party’s behalf. If any member’s conduct transgressed these basic rules of engagement, that individual did not act on behalf of the PDP, and as such the party cannot be vicariously held responsible.
“It will therefore be misplaced for anybody, including the APC, to surmise that Senator Mantu, in the said confession of rigging, acted on behalf of the PDP. After all, in 2007, Senator Mantu lost his own senatorial election. What, then, happened to his rigging machinery, if he could not deliver himself?
“We urge the APC to manage its manifest failures in party administration as well as its incompetency, lack-lustre and wobbling governance which has grounded the country’s economy and brought hunger and starvation to our people.”
