A chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last night sparked a fresh controversy in the polity.
Former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, confessed on television that he helped his party rig elections in the past.
“I don’t have to go and change election (results) but when you provide money, you give money to INEC boys that if they see any chance they should favour you, you provide money to the security (personnel),” he said on Channels Television’ Hard Copy.
“I tell you it’s not necessarily when I am contesting election but when my party sponsors a candidate, I will like that candidate to win election.”
Mantu who represented Plateau State in the Senate between 1999 and 2007 pronounced himself a born again politician in 2017.
He was elected on the platform of the PDP.
He agreed ‘wholeheartedly’ with PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secundus, on the recent public apology he tendered on the party’s mistakes when it was in power between 1999 and 2015.
He said: “We have failed the people through our ways and politics. It is time for us to ensure that we do not allow the wrong people to lead the people and the nation.
“As politicians, we have committed sins against the people, by encouraging the things that we should not have encouraged.
“God has totally blessed our country Nigeria with abundant human and natural resources but we have failed to utilize these to improve the quality of lives of the people.”
Asked why he thought Secundus’ apology was in order, Mantu said: “there is the need for Nigerian politicians to apologize for all the sins we have committed against the people.
“That is because we have shortchanged the people.”
He recalled how, in the PDP, names of candidates who won elections were deleted and replaced with other names.
“Winners names were crossed out and replaced with names of those who did not win. It is bad because we imposed those who did not win on the people,” he said.
“It is true that we (PDP) ruled with impunity.”
He asked other PDP members to also become “born again, remorse and repentant.
“We must meet the expectations of the people. It is not about changing from one party to another. It is about changing our heart. It is about changing our attitudes. Let us sit down and reflect on the bad leadership that we have given to Nigerians these past years and change. Nigeria is supposed to lead Africa but we have failed.”
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