Presidential Campaign Office of President Goodluck Jonathan has vowed to resist the use of card readers if it will jeopardise the ambition of its principal.
The Director of Media and Publicity of the Peoples Democratic Party Campaign Organisation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, stated this at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
He also said the campaign office and the party was not planning to implicate the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, as alleged by the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress.
He said since the card readers had not been tested during any election, his party was apprehensive about their usefulness now.
Card readers are meant to stop rigging and also prevent double-voting by eligible voters.
The commission is planning to test-run the cards in 12 states of the federation on Saturday.
Fani-Kayode however further alleged that he was aware that the APC, with the connivance of some unnamed members of staff of INEC, is planning to use the card readers to frustrate accreditation of voters in some states.
The former Minister of Aviation said, “Our position on the card reader remains that the machine has not been tested in any election and there are bases for genuine concern over the use of the machine, for the first time, in a crucial election of this magnitude.
“We are aware of the plot by the APC, working in cahoots with some strategically placed and retrogressive elements, to use the card readers to frustrate accreditation in some parts of the country while not enforcing strict use of the machine in some other parts.”
He added that “the truth is that if they go ahead with that wicked plot, the APC and its collaborators will only be preparing the ground for mass resistance.
“They can be rest assured that we will not sit by idly and allow such a thing to unfold.”
On the alleged plan to implicate Jega, Fani-Kayode said these allegations were nothing but “the paranoid ranting of a paranoid little man that is working for a paranoid party.”
He said the truth was that his party was “not strategising to shift the election dates. We are not trying to frame up Jega.”
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We"ll resist use of card readers if.. - Jonathan campaigners
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