Former Vice President and frontline presidential aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has written to the Chinese online sale platform, alibaba.com, to express concern over the alleged sale of Nigeria’s Permanent Voters Card on its website.
In an open letter titled “A Matter of National Security and Electoral Integrity Involving alibaba.com,” signed by Gbenga Daniel, Director General Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation, he said the action is a breach of Nigeria’s electoral and national integrity.
Addressed to Jack Ma, the letter, which was made available to newsmen on Monday, appealed to the organisation to take down the electoral material from its platform.
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The letter read: “Dear Jack Ma,
“Greetings and many congratulations for your entrepreneurial successes. I have great admiration for what you have achieved, especially coming from a humble background.
“I write this open letter because my attention has been drawn to an egregious breach of Nigeria’s electoral integrity and thus our national security, by the sale of Nigerian Permanent Voter Cards, on alibaba.com
“We are very concerned about this security breach because it threatens Nigeria’s desire to build strong institutions, like the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“A situation like this could lead to massive vote buying and thus thwart our efforts and instead create strong men where we want to enable strength in institutions.
“Permanent Voter Cards were used in the 2015 Nigerian elections and the alibaba platform was also in existence then, yet we did not have this breach.
“That precedence leads me to believe that if alibaba.com refuses to lend its platform to those unscrupulous elements who want to thwart Nigeria’s democracy, we would greatly increase the chances of a free and fair Nigerian election in 2019.
“Therefore, I appeal to you to use your good offices to permanently remove these items from alibaba.com
“Furthermore, I do kindly ask you to consider sharing information with Nigeria’s security apparatus that may help expose any impropriety.
