Determined to win the February presidential election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has hired a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and a former Resident Electoral Commissioner as consultants.
Also, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) will henceforth coordinate what the party has described as "strategic electoral matters".
The consultants are those who have their loyalists in INEC’s critical units.
It was also learnt that the consultants have the ears of some senior INEC officials, whose sources said had been working to undermine Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.
A source, who spoke in confidence, said: "These consultants have been engaged to study the election process and get involved in the way the state and the PDP react to issues on INEC.
"The consultants have also been mandated to sniff around, identify the weak points in the voting process and advise PDP on how to join issues with the election management body.
"We are also suspecting that they want to study the system and how it can be subverted. In fact, their coordinator is expected to relate with some top members of INEC management.
"I think they just want to rig the election. This is why they have hired those who are used to muddling up the nation’s electoral process as consultants", the NATION was told.
Another source claimed that the consultants had been targeting two areas - the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), and the deployment of Smart Card Readers (SCRs).
The source said: “You can see that already some parties have been influenced to call for the postponement of the general election.
“They want to explore legal and constitutional loopholes in the Electoral Act to create distortion in the voting process and create a stalemate in February.
“The danger at hand is that some of these former staff of the electoral commission have their stooges in sensitive positions in INEC who can easily be used for dirty jobs. We want to appeal to Nigerians to be vigilant and pay attention to their plot.”
Meanwhile, there have been reports of mass burning and invalidation of bought PVCs in the North.
Some of the states are Kaduna, Kano, Adamawa, Sokoto and Kebbi, which are rated as the strongholds of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
The PVCs were bought massively from eligible voters by some politicians at ₦20,000 per card
A source said: “These politicians have been buying PVCs from their holders. What they do is to either burn some of the cards or technically invalidate them. When the invalidated PVCs are presented at the polling units, such voters will not be able to vote.
"This is a sad development which Northern leaders and politicians must address. Voters should be educated not to sell their PVCs."
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