Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

Ahead of the November 16 Bayelsa governorship election, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari and the relevant security agencies to urgent unravel the reality of the mass production of fake Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

There have been allegations that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is involved in the large-scale manufacturing of PVCs which has already been code-named “Biafra Card.”

However, the ruling party, in a statement signed by the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, urged President Buhari to urgently direct security agencies, anti-corruption agencies and other relevant agencies to come to the aid of Bayelsans.

“We are receiving real time reports that the PDP, the government and its agencies are manufacturing fake PVCs code-named “Biafra Card” inside the Government House. Some of the manufactured fake PVCs are at the residence of the aides to the governor.

“Don’t forget that during the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly election in Bayelsa State, only 22 smart card readers out of the 69 stolen by political thugs were retrieved by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“The PDP and the state government are planning to configure the 47 smart card readers still in their possession with the fake PVCs which they are currently mass-producing. I call on our security and intelligence agencies to urgently carry out strategic raids to stop their illegal operations, retrieve the smart card readers and mop up the fake PVCs which they have code-named “Biafra Card.

“The outgoing governor of Bayelsa State, cannot continue to hide under the cloak of immunity to perpetuate the alleged ongoing stealing of state funds and last-minute sale of state assets, election fraud, violence, impunity against Bayelsans.

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“We call on the President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently direct security agencies, anti-corruption agencies and other relevant agencies to come to the aid of Bayelsans.

“We also call on INEC to rise up to the occasion of being on the watch out for the likely fake PVCs in the forthcoming governorship election in Bayelsa,” he appealed.

The APC chieftain also urged voters in the state to resist the desperate plots of the outgoing administration in the state to foist the PDP governorship candidate on Bayelsans through rigging, vote-buying and violence.

“As earlier said, the popularity and wide acceptance of the APC governorship candidate, David Lyon, is apparent and giving the PDP sleepless nights. The PDP’s nightmares will soon be over after Bayelsans have voted them out on November 16,” Nabena stated.

Meanwhile, the Publicity Secretary Bayelsa PDP, Me Mackbere Osom, has dismissed the allegations, urging the public to disregard the allegations of APC, insisting that the party is not ready to contest the governorship election.

He said APC had shown that by the boycott of the governorship debate which was a prove that APC was not ready for the election but only making statements to distract the PDP.

“Ask the APC why are they not campaigning? PDP is busy campaigning to Bayelsans but APC wants to rely on ‘Federal might.’ We are waiting for them. Is PDP or INEC that it should producing PVCs? Let them go and campaign.

“APC had an opportunity to present their programmes to Bayelsans during the governorship debate but because they have a candidate who is not ready to govern Bayelsa, he ran away. PDP has been winning elections since 1999 and we don’t need to produce PVCs to defeat APC,” he insisted.