The Peoples Democratic Party says the former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu’s confession that he rigged election for the party is personal to him.
The party in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Sunday in Abuja said Mantu’s claim has nothing to do with the PDP.
He said the party had never directed any of its members to rig election on its behalf at any point since its formation.
Ologbondiyan dismissed the advice by the All Progressives Congress to learn from Mantu’s claims on how he rigged elections.
He said Mantu spoke about his personal activities and tendencies in the elections where he participated.
“The PDP has never directed or had any pact with him to rig election on its behalf. Never!
“Individuals run their elections on the platform of political parties once they emerge as candidates.
“In the PDP, candidates are issued with the party’s Code of Conduct containing the basic rules of electioneering engagements.
“There is nowhere in these rules of engagement where candidates or party members are directed to rig elections on behalf of the party.
“If any member’s conduct transgressed these basic rules of engagement, that individual did not act on behalf of the PDP, and as such the party cannot be vicariously held responsible.
“It will therefore be misplaced for anybody, including the APC, to surmise that Senator Mantu, in the said confession of rigging, acted on behalf of the PDP.
“After all, in 2007, Mantu lost his own senatorial election. What, then, happened to his rigging machinery if he could not deliver himself?’’ Ologbodinyan countered.
He urged the APC to manage its “failures in party administration” and other problems that have affected the nation and Nigerians negatively.
Mantu was reported to have disclosed during a programme on a television that he helped PDP to rig elections in the past election. (NAN)
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