The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says no circumstance will push it to descend into vote-buying in any election, no matter the alleged machination of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
The party said it did not buy any vote in the July 14, 2018 governorship election in Ekiti State like it alleged that the APC did. The PDP stated that its leadership would never allow such a practice under any guise.
The opposition party insisted that it was wrong for some members of the APC to claim that it bought votes in response to some parties that engaged in such a practice, adding that it (PDP) was never part of such an illegal act.
A statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja on Tuesday, said the PDP spent its resources and energy on a democratic campaign that preceded the Ekiti election and never set up kiosks for the “see and buy” of votes, which he said the APC unabashedly did.
He, however, said the PDP would not allow the APC to get away with what he called stolen mandate in Ekiti State on Saturday.
He said, “The PDP, however, vowed that it will never allow the APC to get away with its crass abuse of democratic norms through which it suppressed the will of the Ekiti people and appropriated victory to itself in the governorship election.
“Moreover, the PDP restates its position that the Ekiti election marks the last time anybody or party will use any means whatsoever to manipulate it out at the polls, particularly in the forthcoming Osun governorship election and the 2019 general elections.”
In its reaction, the APC urged the opposition PDP to accept its electoral defeat in the just concluded Ekiti governorship election.
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said this in a telephone interview with The PUNCH, in Abuja, on Tuesday.He said that it was high time the opposition PDP accepted the fact that the people of Ekiti, like their counterparts across the country, had rejected the PDP brand.
Abdullahi said, “They (PDP) are simply behaving like the bad losers that they are. It (statement) is a cry of a sore loser.
“It is because they lost that election that they are making allegations of vote buying. What the people of Ekiti demonstrated is simply a rejection of that platform; it is not an issue of vote buying. There were international observers at that election and they all concluded that it was a very successful election; INEC itself concluded that it was a very successful election; there are no perfect elections anywhere.”