2019 presidency: Atiku responds to APC claim of hiring Russian hackers to penetrate INEC’s server

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has reacted to the All Progressives Congress, APC’s allegation of procuring Russian hackers to penetrate Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, servers ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Atiku spoke through his presidential campaign organization.

He said the claim was a reflection of the desperation of the ruling party.

He said only President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC were determined to sustain what it claimed as the present incompetent system, and would do anything to win an election.

Speaking through his campaign spokesman, Prince Kassim Afegbua, Atiku said, “The Buhari Media Organisation has grown to become a hackers den and propagandist conclave funded by illicit funds to rake up mud against the opposition.

“They are not just alarmist by orientation and conduct, they have become a monstrous organisation that feeds fat on lies, concocted stories, ridiculous tell-tales just to sustain their irrelevance and notoriety in the public space.

“The PDP doesn’t need the services of hackers because the 2019 election is a referendum of Nigerians against poverty, nepotism, cronyism, deprivations and impoverishment. It is a referendum on crass incompetence, manifest under-performance, and governmental malfunctioning.

“In such situation, only the APC, President Buhari and the BMO who are desperate to sustain this level of incompetence would be thinking of hiring hackers from any part of the world to rig election and manipulate the outcome.

“We are aware of dare-devil plans by the APC to import foreigners from neighbouring countries to serve as election observers and thugs, in a decoy to rig the elections. The bad news for them is that we are monitoring them closely inch for inch, meter for meter to ensure we are not taken unawares.

“Only professional riggers such as APC and BMO would know of hacking and technological manipulation but now that they have raised the point, we will set our antennae to do further monitoring of their devious acts.

“Following the lukewarm reception which the president received yesterday at the joint session of the National Assembly, it is crystal clear that this government is on its departure lounge of the Aso Villa.”