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| Uche Secondus |
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council on Monday asked the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services to invite, interrogate and possibly prosecute leaders of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party over what it described as their illegal access to the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The organisation’s Director, Strategic Communications, Festus Keyamo (SAN), made the call in a petition addressed to the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu; and the Director-General of DSS, Yusuf Bichi.
Although he was not specific on the identities of the PDP leaders he wants investigated, Keyamo made reference to the fact that the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has filed an election petition against the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari and has made a claim of having access to INEC server.
He claimed that upon the postponement of the February 16, 2019 presidential/National Assembly elections, already prepared presidential election results surfaced on the Internet.
Keyamo said the fake results which had details of the scores of the candidates of the major political parties gave victory to Atiku even when elections did not hold.
According to him, the only conclusion that can be drawn from the development is that the PDP had prepared those results which were to be smuggled into INEC server.
He added that when the election was finally held on February 23, 2019 and Buhari was declared the winner, the PDP cried foul and claimed that from results it obtained from INEC server, it had proof that its candidate won the election by about 1.6million votes.
Keyamo said the claim had revealed that “some criminally-minded PDP operatives” had access to the INEC server to be able to smuggle in fake results.
He argued that the only means by which they could have access to the INEC server was by the criminal hacking of the server or through the criminal conspiracy of some INEC officials.
He said, “The APC Presidential Campaign Council hereby prays that the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the Department of State Services should use your good offices to investigate the hacking of and/or illegal tampering with the INEC server by the PDP.
“The leadership of the PDP must be invited, interrogated and investigated and those identified as perpetrators must be arrested and prosecuted.
“Opposition is healthy in a democracy but it is not a licence for criminality and illegality.
“A country governed by laws cannot be blackmailed or cowed into indolence by the perceived underdog status of the opposition so as to condone such a blatant criminal claim by the PDP of having illegal access to INEC server.”
