PDP confident of victory; Insists Jonathan campaigned better than others; Says CPC, others were plotting chaos
Leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday boasted that its presidential candidate, President Goodlcuk Jonathan is well ahead of other presidential candidates and will win the forthcoming presidential election after the first ballot.
Debunking claims by the leadership of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) that if its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari fails to make 80 per cent of the total poll cast in the election, then the election is rigged, the PDP said such a claim was unfounded and bereft of facts and statistical figures.
Speaking to journalists on the level of preparedness of the party, the acting national chairman of the PDP, Dr. Haliru Bello Mohammed, insisted that from all indications, “our candidate is coasting home to victory”.
He said that whereas the PDP presidential candidate, Jonathan has campaigned in all the states of the federation, some other presidential candidates were yet to reach all the geo-political zones in the country.
Said he: “We have campaign; we have interacted with people. From all indications, our candidate is very well accepted by majority of Nigerians. Even 45 political parties came to us while we are campaigning saying that they will like to support the ticket of Jonathan/Sambo.
“Therefore there is no doubt in my mind that Jonathan will get plurality of votes; that is the majority of votes cast would be for PDP. He will get the required spread and 25 per cent of the votes cast in two-third of the 36 states and the FCT”.
Dismissing claims by the National Secretary of the CPC, Alhaji Buba Galadima that Buhari will poll no less than 80 per cent of the total votes to be case, Mohammed said “I really can't see where our competitor get the idea that, they can win election or that there will be a second ballot”.
Insisting that it was unfounded, he said the reason why they were making such claims was to prepare ground for chaos or to whip up unfounded sentiments in the international community as a ploy to discredit the outcome of the election if they were not favoured.
Said Mohammed: “Our fear is they are preparing ground for dissent. We went to have a meeting with the police the last time and I read in the newspapers that one Buba Galadima of CPC said they will not recognize any other winner other than Buhari.
“Even saying that if Buhari gets less than 80 per cent, then they will know that the election was rigged. I was surprised because anybody who knows this country and the spread of the candidates, unless you have your head in bag, knows that Jonathan is ahead of the others in the race.
“You know, that there is no way Buhari can win this election. Buhari's stronghold is in a few states in the worth. He doesn't have national spread, no support from the South, East, West or the North Central. So, where are the votes coming from for a political party to say they would not recognize any winner except Buhari.
“They have a plan to perpetrate violence if any other candidate emerge winner. That is not going to happen. That is why we complained to INEC and the security agents to be mindful of the utterances of politicians which is indicative of what they are planning.
“The opposition have not gone round the zones. We have gone round every zone,. Our governors are going round every local government. Other members of the party are moving round all the wards in the country and there is nowhere we don't have strong membership and followership.
“We have candidates for every post being contested for in this election. There is no other party that has such high volume of candidates vying for election in all the 109 senatorial districts and 306 federal constituencies, 36 state governorship positions and all the state houses of assembly.
“They don't have the spread. They are not prepared to meet the people. They limit their propaganda to newspapers. They are going from one embassy to the other to create doubt in the minds of people about the fairness of the election, instead of building confidence.
“This means they have post election plans. In the PDP, we are convinced based on what we see now and the antecedent in the two previous elections that PDP is the only party accepted by Nigerians and has spread from north to south; east to west”.
On why the party is not supporting people to remain behind after accreditation, Dr. Mohammed explained that why the party is not averse to the proposal, they only said it was unfair to keep everybody at the polling station doing nothing for four hours or more.
He also said that given the level of political tension in some parts of the country, it would amount to giving some bad elements opportunity to strike by asking people to wait behind after accreditation, rather than vote and go home as had been the case in the past.
“PDP supports that people should vote and defend their votes, but we know that some people who want to make trouble can ignite such on merely sighting someone they have been nursing grudges against. It is not proper to ask people to cluster at the polling stations for too long,” he stressed.
He also warned people against engaging in untoward attitude, pointing out that he believes the security agencies are up to their duties and asked them to be on top of the security situation in the country.