The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has directed its members and supporters across the country to cast their votes in the Feb. 16 presidential election and protect their votes against any form of rigging.
Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, who is also the Director, Media & Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, gave the directive at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.
Ologbondiyan said the party was ready for the election and had fully mobilised over 40 million of its members and directed them to stand shoulder to shoulder with Nigerians in all the polling centers across the country.
He said the directive was in the overall determination to vehemently unleash full-scale resistance against rigging plans in the presidential and national assembly election.
“Our members are hereby directed to get ready to arrive at their polling centers very early ready to vote and to use every legitimate means to protect themselves from any aggression, resist all rigging plans, all through the way, to the very end.
“The PDP is in full knowledge of all the illegal polling centers and we will unleash our strength against plans to use such places to award fictitious votes for President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ologbondiyan urged the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to note that in the 21st century “Nigerians will effectively monitor all the ballots,’’ real results from all the polling centers to the national collation.
“Our members, supporters and indeed all Nigerians are therefore directed to arrive their polling centers with their lunch packs, mats, water bottles, mobile phones, phone power banks and other necessary items for a long stay at the polling centers.
“All our supporters should vote and remain at the polling centers to monitor the process until the declaration of results,’’ he said.
Ologbondiyan added that the PDP, its agents, members and millions of Nigerians rallying behind Atiku were set for the poll to defeat Buhari.
“By all manifest indices from the six geo-political zones, 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, the peoples candidate, Atiku, is already coasting to victory and not even the machinations by the APC can change this reality,’’ he said.
Ologbondiyan said the party acknowledged the fact that election is not about politics but about building the nation.
“For Nigerians, the election is a choice between democracy and dictatorship; between justice and injustice, between prosperity and poverty; unity and polarity; peace and bloodletting. `
“It is between freedom and enslavement; progress and stagnation; creation of jobs and job losses, respect for territorial integrity and invasion; a choice between an in-charge president and a president by proxy.
“It is also between a candidate that will accept responsibility and a candidate that always engage in blame game.
“It is a choice between a candidate that will turn our nation into a pariah state and a candidate that will make our nation a huge foreign investment destination for the benefit of the people.
“This is the reason Nigerians are willing to make any sacrifice in this election,’’ he said.
Ologbondiyan commended patriotic Nigerians who had resisted inducements as well as intimidation to allow for any manipulation of the process.
He said the party also noted the support of some well-meaning Nigerians who were stuck in the APC, but have been in touch with the PDP in the all-important quest to rescue the nation.
“Finally, the PDP charges Nigerians to continue to be on alert and await further directives, particularly regarding the relaying of real time information on the electoral process,’’ he said