Atiku alleges plot by APC to rig Saturday’s presidential election

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in Saturday’s
Presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has raised the alarm that
the Managing Director of Activate Technologies Limited, Mohammed
Sani Musa , whose company supplied the machines used in printing
the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) is the candidate of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) for Niger East Senatorial district for
tomorrow’s poll.

In a press statement issued on Friday in Abuja by his Special
Assistant on Public Communication, Atiku stated that the revelation
is a result of his team’s extensive intelligence gathering network
to identify and prevent the ruling party from rigging the
election.

The statement said, “It is public knowledge that Sani Musa,
popularly known as Sani 313 is a card carrying member of the APC
and a close associate of several stalwarts of the party, including
President Muhammadu Buhari who apparently pushed his nomination.
But shockingly, the APC Senatorial candidate for Zone B of Niger
State,Mr. Mohammed Musa, has a contract with INEC to supply key
voting materials in an election he is participating in, which is a
clear conflict of interest and raises questions of probity and
oversight in the issuing of INEC contracts.”

“The INEC contract was to ‘upgrade’ the card readers and to
print PVC cards. Further investigations have shown that the
‘upgrade’ consisted of pre-programming the card readers to accept
fake replica PVCs (copies of genuine PVCs) that the firm printed in
Nigeria. These two activities were undertaken so that the APC could
boost its vote tally in its strongholds or force votes in Polling
Units at PDP strongholds to be null and void by over-voting .

“Our investigation also identified the seven States where this
activity was due to take place and we have therefore informed the
Observer Community and our own extensive network of over 176,000
Party Agents so that they can forestall this activity by checking
cards as allowed under INEC guidelines.

“Given that that Mr.s Musa’s previous company, Act Technologies,
had a contract to supply and install PVC card printers in the INEC
Headquarters, it does beg the question why Mr Musa’s new company,
Activate Technologies, was given a subsequent contract to print PVC
cards itself?

“Other investigations have revealed that an employee and
Director of Activate Technologies and an APC member, Mr. Mohammed
Keffi, was filmed at Abuja Airport Domestic Departure Lounge on
29th December opening an official INEC envelope and then handling
multiple ballot forms which he was checking off against his mobile
phone. Sources also confirmed that this person was one of the
people who was loading the fake card numbers into the ‘upgraded’
card readers in the Residence of the former Governor of Akwa Ibom,
as well as other ‘Card Reader Farms’ in Abuja and Kano. These
‘farms’ are under guard by members of Government Security
agencies.”

“The PDP Presidential Candidate said while Alhaji Sani Musa has
the right to hold any public office in spite of his line of
business, it is morally unjustifiable to allow a well-known
supplier of sensitive INEC materials to partake in an election in
which the key materials to be used for the poll were supplied by
him.

“A search at the Corporate Affairs Commission showed that most
of the directors in Act Technologies are the same as those in
Activate Technologies.The directors of Activate Technologies except
Musa (now APC candidate) include: Abubakar Musa, Kabiru Abdullahi
Bawa, Suleiman Danladi, Akinsuyi Akin Najeem. Activate Technologies
located on Ganges Street, Maitama, learnt that is shares the same
address as Act Technologies.”

He lamented that Activate Technologies was given contracts by
INEC to supply PVCs for the 2019 general elections in spite of the
fact that the owner of the firm is a candidate in tomorrow’s
poll.

“A copy of one of many such contracts with reference number
INEC/HQ/PROC/ICT/S106/1 dated October 4, 2017 and signed by the
Secretary to INEC, Augusta Ogakwu, stated that the firm would need
to print 112, 218 PVCs, ” Atiku said.

“Mr Musa had attempted to hide his ownership via proxy
shareholders who have been revealed as members of his own family.
However his position as Founder and MD of Activate Technology
Limited was clumsily exposed to the world via his Linked-in page
where he bragged about his firm to secure more business for it. The
expression “Pride cometh before a fall” comes to mind and is a
suitable epitaph for the arrogant and brazen people who form this
failed government.”

“Our candidate and the Party has conducted extensive research
into what the APC will be attempting to do to shore up their
collapsed vote share in these elections having studied what we call
the “Osun Playbook”. We have been able to implement extensive
preventative measures to pre-empt their plans. So the Nigerian
public can go out and vote confident in the knowledge that their
vote will count”. “Our candidate has said on record that “even if
you do not vote for me, please go out and vote as this election is
not about me, it is about Nigeria and your future.”

“So we would like to ask General Buhari, the self-declared
“reformed democrat” whether what happened in Osun was an exception
to his promise or his definition of what ‘free and fair’ means?

“We believe that on the basis of what we have exposed here today
the Nigerian public can make up their own minds about this question
and demonstrate their views at the polls tomorrow, secure in the
knowledge that their votes will count.”