Election Postponement: Buhari Campaign Team Blames PDP

Election Postponement: Buhari Campaign Team Blames PDP

The campaign office of President Muhammadu Buhari has blamed the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the postponement of the 2019 presidential elections.

Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission, announced at about 2:40 a.m.
Saturday that the election had been postponed, barely hours after
Nigerians were set to hit the polling units.

The elections would
now hold on new dates scheduled as February 23 for presidential and
national assembly elections and March 9 for governorship and state
assemblies elections.

Mr Yakubu said the announcement came hours
after a string of strategic meetings were held by top INEC officials to
review preparedness for the exercise. It was concluded that a rash of
logistics challenges that arose on Friday informed the postponement.

Ekiti,
Niger and Taraba states were identified as some of the states that
faced glitches of distribution of voting materials that would be
difficult to resolve in time for the elections Saturday morning, thereby
forcing the postponement.

Nigerians online expressed severe
disappointment in INEC’s eleventh-hour decision, with many criticising
the umpire for displaying stark incompetence since it had four years to
prepare for the exercise.

Festus Keyamo, a spokesperson for Mr
Buhari’s reelection campaign committee, also expressed sadness about the
development, and quickly heaped the blame on the PDP in a statement
released minutes after the announcement.

“We condemn and deprecate this tardiness of the electoral umpire in the strongest terms possible.

“President
Muhammadu Buhari had since cooperated fully with INEC by ensuring
everything it demanded to conduct free and fair elections were promptly
made available to it.

“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 rumor 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,”
Mr Keyamo said.

The spokesperson also urged Nigerians to support
INEC in its challenges, and prevent the commission from being
compromised by the opposition.

“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 crises, 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,” he said.

Mr Keyamo did not attach any evidence to
corroborate his claims against the PDP or other opposition elements he
accused in the statement.

A spokesperson for the PDP did not immediately answer calls seeking comments in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Source:- Premiumtimesng