JOHN ALECHENU and Adelani Adepegba
The police will investigate the confession of a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, that he rigged previous elections in the country in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party.
A police source, who confirmed this to SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday, however, said the APC chief would be investigated if the Independent National Electoral Commission lodged a complaint against him.
A senior police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity on Saturday, stated that the force could not take any action against the former Senate deputy president because there was no complaint before the police about Mantu’s misdemeanor and alleged violation of the electoral laws.
“Notwithstanding the admission of electoral crime by the former deputy Senate President, we can only investigate him if there is a formal complaint by INEC or other agencies.
“For now, we don’t regard the telecast as an admission of crime until we receive a complaint following which we would invite Mantu and interrogate him, “ the senior officer stated.
Efforts to get the Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, proved abortive as he did not respond to calls to his phone. He had yet to reply an SMS as of the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress has urged members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to take a cue from Mantu and confess their sins against the country.
The APC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, in Abuja, on Saturday, said Mantu took the right step by confessing the sins committed against Nigeria by the PDP when it was in power.
The APC statement partly read, “Apparently burdened by guilty conscience, the PDP national chairman had last week apologised to the nation for the years of misrule that his party brought on the country.
“The APC noted this apology but asked the PDP to go a step further and confess its sins before restitution could be considered. Instead of taking this path to redemption, PDP has engaged in fruitless ‘you too’ accusations and name-calling. This is further evidence that PDP is not ready for repentance and only offered the apology with the hope that Nigerians will grant them amnesty and a short-cut back to power.
“However, now that Senator Mantu has belled the cat, by confessing to how he has helped the PDP to rig elections in the past, we hope that the PDP will follow the bold example of the former senator and confess to their other sins against Nigeria.”
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