• PDP Kick Against Election Postponement, Alleges Buhari’s Agenda To Cling To Power
• Calls On Yakubu Chairman To Resign
• APC Campaign Body Condemn Postponement, Admonishes Supporters To Be Calm
• Atiku Call For Patience

• Moghalu Call For Calm

 

After hours of rumours and denial, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in the early hours of the morning, postponed the Presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled to hold today, citing logistics challenges.The elections would now hold next Saturday, February 23, while the Governorship and State Assembly elections earlier schedule for March 2 would hold on March 9.

The electoral body said the one-week shift was to enable it tidy up all arrangements and deliver credible elections.But the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the postponement. Its National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, said INEC’s “shoddy arrangement” for the elections was a deliberate pre-determined agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari to cling on to power even when it is obvious to him that Nigerians want him out.

On its part, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council expressed disappointment over INEC’s decision to postpone the elections.The Council’s Director, Strategic Communications, Mr. Festus Keyamo, wondered why INEC had to take the decision in spite the commitment by President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the conduct free and fair elections.

In his reaction, the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, urged calm, saying, however, that postponement is a case of the hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob and meant to frustrate Nigerians to achieve low turnout. Abubakar called on Nigerians to remain peaceful, despite being provoked by the postponement.

INEC, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said the decision was taken following a review of the implementation of its logistics and operational plan and its determination to conduct free, fair and credible elections, came to the conclusion that proceeding with the elections as scheduled was no longer feasible.

INEC said the shift would afford it “the opportunity to address the identified challenges to maintain the quality of our elections.”It stated that it had scheduled a meeting with key stakeholders today at 2:00pm at the International Conference Centre, Abuja to brief them of the new development.

Secondus said that the postponement which he alleged was part of a grand design by the All Progressives Congress, APC, to thwart the will of Nigerians at all cost, clearly exposes INEC as a failure and calls on the Chairman of the Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu to resign immediately.

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

The National Chairman said 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, Prince Secondus said that the party is privy to all the pressures from the APC and the federal government to arm-twist the INEC, to dance to their new strategy after their earlier ones failed.

“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 the action of the President, he has further demonstrated his insensitivity adding that it has brought the huge cost for Nigerians including those who came home from abroad and had all mobilized to their various constituencies.

The PDP National Chairman recalled that the PDP had earlier alerted Nigerians that the APC was coming up with lined-up 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 is a 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.

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 wants 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 has gone ahead in breach of the peace agreements to send soldiers and other security agencies to arrest, harass and intimidate opponents in Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Kwara, Kano, Kaduna states.

In a statement he personally signed and made available to journalists Saturday morning, Abubakar noted that the postponement would assist the Buhari administration in achieving its agenda. Atiku equally asked Nigerians to remain peaceful so as not to be caught by the trap of the Buhari Presidency which he noted wanted a violent reaction to get to another level in its anti democratic plots.

“Their plan is to provoke the public, hoping for a negative reaction, and then use that as an excuse for further anti-democratic acts. As such, I call on all Nigerians to be patient. We have tolerated the maladministration of this government for four years. We can extend our tolerance a few more days and give them our verdict via our votes.

“Maintain the peace and be law-abiding. Do not react to this provocation with anger, violence or any action that might be exploited by those who do not want this election to hold. Remain calm. We will overcome this. You can postpone an election, but you cannot postpone destiny.“Please come out to vote on Saturday, 23 February and Saturday, March 9 respectively. Frustrate those who do not want this election to hold by coming out in very large numbers. That is the best antidote to their plans. May God bless you and may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria”

Keyamo noted: “This news is therefore a huge disappointment to us and to our teeming supporters nationwide and around the world, many of whom have come into the country to exercise their franchise.”We do hope that INEC will remain neutral and impartial in this process as the rumour mill is agog with the suggestion that this postponement has been orchestrated in collusion with the main opposition, the PDP, that was NEVER ready for this election.

“We note that all the major credible demographic projections have predicted a defeat of the PDP and it seriously needed this breather to orchestrate more devious strategies to try and halt President Buhari’s momentum. It did the same as the ruling Party in 2015, when it realized the game was up, by orchestrating the postponement of the 2015 elections by six weeks. Now, it may be up to its old trick again.

“We have earlier raised the alarm that the PDP is bent on discrediting this process the moment it realized it cannot make up the numbers to win this election. We are only urging INEC not collude with the PDP on this. “We are truly worried because as early as Friday morning, some known PDP Social Media influencers unwittingly announced this postponement, but quickly deleted the message and apologized to the public that it was fake news. We do not want to be forced to a situation of announcing our total loss of confidence in INEC, because we know where that would leave our democracy.

“It is in the light of the above that we wish to appeal to Nigerians and our supporters to be patient, calm and resolute despite this temporary setback. Let us not give anyone, especially the PDP, the opportunity to plunge this nation into a crisis, which is what they earnestly desire. Its imminent defeat is just a few days away. “Lastly, we wish to draw the attention of INEC and the world to observe that the PDP has clearly and openly said it plans to announce parallel results through some funny device it has procured or developed.

“We wish to reiterate that it is ONLY INEC that is legally and constitutionally empowered to declare results and it constitutes an offence for anyone to do so. We urge INEC to speak up now and warn the PDP to desist from this ignoble act that is capable of plunging the nation into a crises of immeasurable proportions.”

It would be recalled that as at late yesterday, some sensitive and non-sensitive materials were yet to arrive in some states, including Edo and Ekiti, fuelling fears and speculations over the polls.In 2015, then INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, postponed the Presidential and National Assembly elections from February 14 to March 28 for security reasons and to enable the military under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration clear some parts of Borno State of insurgents holding sway there for the polls to be conducted simultaneously throughout the country.

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