PDP rejects shift in election dates, asks INEC chair to resign

The Peoples Democratic Party has rejected the new dates
announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission for the
conduct of the general elections.

It alleged that shoddy arrangements for the elections by the
Independent National Electoral Commission was a deliberate agenda
of President Muhammadu Buhari to cling on to power even when it
said it was obvious to him that Nigerians wanted him out.

National Chairman of the party, Prince Secondus, stated this
while reacting to the pronouncements made by the Chairman of the
commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu in the early hours of Saturday
that the elections had been postponed.

Yakubu said that the Presidential and National Assembly
elections earlier scheduled to hold today would now hold next
Saturday while that of governorship, state houses of Assembly and
Abuja area councils had been shifted to March 9.

Secondus alleged that the postponement was part of a grand
design by the All Progressives Congress to thwart the will of
Nigerians at all cost.

He added that the action had clearly exposed INEC as a failure
and called on its chairman to resign immediately.

The PDP leader warned that the party will not accept “anything
short of a well organised electoral process devoid of manipulation,
harassment and intimidation of voters and the opposition
particularly members of the PDP.”

He added, “Having failed in all their nefarious options to
enable them cling on to power, the APC and the INEC came up with
the idea of shifting election, an action that is dangerous to our
democracy and is therefore unacceptable.”

Secondus added that the APC in connivance with the INEC “have
been trying all options including but not limited to burning down
INEC offices in some states and destroying of electoral materials
to create artificial problems upon which to stand for their dubious
act.”

According to a statement from the national chairman’s media
office signed by Ike Abonyi, Secondus said that the party was privy
to the alleged pressure from the APC and the Federal Government to
allegedly arm twist INEC, to dance to their new strategy after
earlier ones failed.

He said, “With several of their rigging options failing, they
have to force INEC to agree to a shift in the election or a
staggered election with flimsy excuses pre-manufactured for the
purpose.

“For the avoidance of doubt the PDP sees this action as wicked
and we are also aware of other dubious designs like the deployment
of hooded security operatives who would be ruthless on the people
ostensibly to scare them away.”

He said that by this action, the President had allegedly further
demonstrated his “insensitivity costing the huge cost after
Nigerians including those who came home from abroad have all
mobilised to their various constituencies.”

He recalled that the PDP had earlier alerted Nigerians that the
APC was allegedly coming up with rigging strategies including
“burning down of INEC offices and engineering crisis in PDP
stronghold areas to scare away the people.”

Secondus said that the wicked killing of over 60 persons mostly
women and children in Southern Kaduna on the eve of election was a
copious ploy by the APC to frighten the people away from voting,
knowing too well that they were not going to record any vote from
the area.

“Recall that the Governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai
had earlier threatened international election observers of going to
their country in body bags and with the fatal violence in the state
on the eve of election, it’s clear what the motives are, to
frighten the observers from the state so that he can carry out his
nefarious acts,” he added.

The National Chairman also drew the attention of all lovers of
democracy to the statement of President Buhari on the international
media that nobody can unseat him from office as an indication of
what he wanted to do.

Prince Secondus also regretted that President Buhari who made a
promise at the signing of peace accord that the election would be
conducted in a fair and transparent atmosphere had gone ahead in
breach of the peace agreements to by sending soldiers and other
security agencies to arrest, harass and intimidate opponents in
Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Kwara, Kano, Kaduna states.