The All Progressives Congress, APC, has accused the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of resorting to illegally acquiring Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, for N10,000.to disenfranchise voters in opposition strongholds..

The party in a statement issued Tuesday in Lagos by its national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed, alleged that a company, Agro-Allied Communities Service Nigeria Limited, was behind the scheme.

According to the APC, the company purports to engage in provision of 50,000 Naira loan for the empowerment of women but curiously requires that applicants must provide PVCs as collateral before the loan could be accessed.

The party alleged that the company which claims to be a private concern was in fact a front for the ruling party established for the purpose of acquiring PVCs from registered voters in areas perceived to be opposition strongholds.

Stating that the alleged development is a pointer to the hidden reason for postponing the polls, which is to gain time to perfect strategies for rigging, the party called attention to what it called the “desperation by some people to hold on to power at all cost, even when it is clear that Nigerians have widely rejected them due to non-performance, massive corruption and profligacy under their watch” and warned those involved to desist from the illegal act.

”Our members have alerted us to the fact that PDP agents have been operating in all villages between Kobape and Orile-Imo along the Sagamu-Abeokuta Expressway in Ogun State, giving 10,000 Naira to each poor villager and collecting their PVCs,” it stated adding that “PDP agents are also promising each villager a monthly stipend of 10,000 Naira if and when their party assumes office in the state.”

”Indications are that this objectionable PVC mop-up is being replicated in all opposition strongholds by the frenzied PDP, hence we at the APC have decided to alert the nation to the reprehensible act,” the party said.

The opposition party stated also that several officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, have been observed dispossessing registered voters in the northern regions of the nation of their PVCs under the pretext of arresting illegal aliens with voter cards.

According to the APC, after the spurious arrests, the unsuspecting villagers’ cards seized, in a bid to disenfranchise them.

The party cautioned its members and supporters, and Nigerians in general, not to commercialize their PVCs no matter the inducements, affirming that the voter card is the only instrument available for effecting a peaceful change of leadership and ensuring that they access the gains of democracy

”This act of desperation is totally unacceptable and must stop forthwith. Every voter should be allowed to exercise his or her franchise in accordance with his/her conscience, without intimidation or inducement,” the party said.