The People’s Democratic Party (PDP’s) unceasing theatrics over the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) ‘hacked’ server is like another episode in its series of Tales by Moonlight.
The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) says it is all part of a ploy to divert attention from the criminality inherent in the opposition party’s claim of having illegal access to the central server of the election management body.
BMO said in a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, that the latest allegation by PDP that INEC management had been replacing its servers was meant to prepare grounds for the expected rejection of the result it claimed to have obtained from the commission’s central computer system.
“We have for several weeks now been assailed by PDP’s bold-faced admission of a criminal act of hacking, which it later sought to water down with claims that it got its information from a whistle blower.
“But since the initial attempt at giving credibility to the fake result the party leaders and its supporters had been openly sharing failed, PDP is now keen on giving the impression that INEC and the Buhari administration had been working on erasing what it claimed were the authentic results from the server.
“This is a gambit aimed at stoking chaos and paving way for public disorder when its petition, which was built on quick-sand of fake result, finally collapses at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal,” it said.
The group stated that PDP had since the conclusion of the February 23 Presidential election been parading fake results that could not have been from any known INEC server, adding that it is also a criminal act just like the party’s claims of having unauthorised access to a central computer system of a government agency.
“INEC had, as soon as President Muhammadu Buhari withheld assent to the electoral (amendment) bill containing the provision for the transmission of results, made it clear that it was putting its earlier plan on hold in apparent acquiescence with the President’s position of lack of time to simulate the process to ensure its effectiveness.
“So for PDP that was the ruling party for 16 years to claim that a handful of faceless presiding officers transmitted results from their polling units is nothing but a continuation of the party’s serial tales by moonlight which began in the run-up to the 2019 Presidential election.
“Its leaders now want to extend this narrative with another cock and bull story on replacement of INEC servers which they hope their supporters would leverage upon to cause public disorder.
“The truth lies in the real INEC’s result which shows that an overwhelming majority of registered Nigerians voters gave President Buhari a resounding victory over PDP’s Atiku Abubakar.”
BMO said no manner of wild allegations can rationalise PDP’s position on the Presidential election.
“We urge the opposition party to conserve its energy for the courts since it has already filed a petition anchored on its contrived results at the tribunal, and to stop using different kinds of subterfuge to externalise its so-called facts for ulterior motives”, it added.