In the response by the PDP issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Sunday, the opposition party said that the claims by its former stakeholder were personal to him and has nothing to do with the PDP.

According to the PDP, the party has never directed any member of the party to rig elections on its behalf.

“The PDP has never directed or had any pact with him (Mr Mantu) to rig election on its behalf. Never,” Mr Ologbondiyan said on Sunday.

“Individuals run their elections on the platform of political parties once they emerge as candidates. In the PDP, candidates are issued with the party’s Code of Conduct containing the basic rules of electioneering engagements.

“There is nowhere in the rules of engagement where candidates or party members are directed to rig elections on behalf of the party.

“If any member’s conduct transgressed these basic rules of engagement, that individual did not act on behalf of the PDP, and as such the party cannot be vicariously held responsible.

“It will therefore be misplaced for anybody, including the APC to surmise that Senator Mantu, in the said confession of rigging, acted on behalf of the PDP.”

“After all, in 2007, Senator Mantu lost his own senatorial election. What, then, happened to his rigging machinery, if he could not deliver himself.”