By Onyekachi Eze
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has
accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of
succumbing to the blackmail of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to
rig this month’s presidential election. PDP National Publicity
Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, at a press conference yesterday, said the
presidency has threatened to give the INEC Chair-man, Prof. Mahomood
Yakubu, Justice Walter Onneghen’s treatment if he refused to rig the
election in favour of the APC. But Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press
Secretary to the INEC Chairman noted that for the past 20 years, the
commission had ensured that no member of any political party was engaged
to participate in the conduct of elections.
“I therefore call on
any political party or individuals with information on how the
commission plans to or has engaged members of any political party as
ad-hoc staff for the upcoming general elections to make such information
public and mention specific names. “It is not enough to make wild
allegations. It is incumbent on those who make such allegations to also
provide the proof,” he challenged them.
Oyekanmi added that INEC
would not allow itself to be dragged into unnecessary controversies by
political parties,and assured Nigerians of the commission’s commitment
to conducting free, fair and credible 2019 general elections. PDP had
alleged that INEC has collected a list of people that would serve as
electoral officials, including ad-hoc staff and returning officers at
the polling units, from APC state governors and candidates, across the
country, on the directives of the Buhari presidency.
“The PDP is
already privy to how the lists were populated with APC members and
agents of the APC candidates, after clearance by the APC leaders in
various states,” Ologbondiyan said. He accused INEC of violating section
29 (1) of the Electoral Act (as amended), which states that person to
be appointed as electoral official shall not be a member of any
political party. To this end, he called on the commission to publish the
list of ad hoc staff who will serve during the elections within the
next 48 hours. “Any delay or refusal by INEC to publish the list of ad
hoc staff with 48 hours will be a clear acceptance that it has been
compromised by the APC and this could lead to a very serious crisis with
very dire consequences as the PDP will never allow anybody to rig it
out in this election.
Source:- Newtelegraphonline
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