Senate President Bukola Saraki has said that the allegation that some politicians were planning to purchase Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) was a major threat to the successful conduct of this year’s general elections.
Saraki said it was a threat because it could become the single factor to decide where victory swings in the election. The Senate President therefore advised the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, to immediately call a meeting of stakeholders with the aim of formulating plans and ideas on how to render useless the intention of such politicians.
Saraki, while reacting to a statement credited to Prof. Yakubu that some politicians were already scheming to purchase PVCs, urged the INEC boss not to stop at raising the alarm but immediately devise water-tight arrangement to make futile the efforts of such unscrupulous politicians.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, the Senate President said manipulation of election results does not start and end on Election Day, rather it starts long before the day and goes on even after the declaration of results.
“That is why we have to continually be vigilant and once we identify any threat to free, fair and transparent conduct of a credible election like the INEC chairman has done, all stakeholders must put heads together to block the loopholes,” he stated.
