Vice President Sambo shocks APC says ''We are not afraid of card readers''

Vice President Namadi Sambo on Thursday boasted that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party is not afraid of the use of card readers by the Independent National Electoral Commission for the forthcoming general elections.

A statement by his spokesman, Umar Sani, quoted Sambo as speaking during an interactive session he had with members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Kano State chapter.

The Vice President’s position however sharply contradicts the position of the PDP Governors Forum and some top officials of the party who had openly kicked against the use of the device for the elections.

Sambo explained that rather than opposing the issue of the card readers, the party’s major concern is to ensure that no eligible voter is disenfranchised.

“One thing I will tell you is that PDP is not afraid of anything, not even the card reader. We are not afraid of the card reader. To be very honest, what we want is free and fair elections.

“We don’t want anything to go wrong through the use of the card reader. In Ebonyi State, the INEC commissioner there said he is going to repeat the testing and in so many other states there have been problems with the card readers, to the extent that INEC itself has introduced an incidence form.

“That is why we are saying, let us do this thing properly,” Sambo was quoted as saying.

He said the present administration remained committed to free, fair and credible elections in the country.

The Vice President boasted that the PDP remained the party of Nigeria, having retained its identity since 1998.

He said the party has significant presence in all parts of the country.

“As a party, we believe in the rule of law. That was why we signed the Freedom of Information Act. Even to address the issue of corruption, you must start from a free, fair and credible election. If you don’t do it, you have not started to address corruption,” he added.

He said President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration had delivered on all its campaign promises and was poised to doing more.

He enumerated these achievements to cover the areas of power supply, education, transportation, security, agriculture, fight against corruption and corrupt practices, industrialisation, job creation as well as security.

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