Polls Postponement: INEC Has To Explain To Nigerians What Really Happened – President Buhari

Polls Postponement: INEC Has To Explain To Nigerians What Really Happened – President Buhari

President Buhari has said the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) owes Nigerians detailed explanation for its decision
to delay the general elections.

Speaking at the All Progressives Congress (APC) emergency caucus meeting at the party secretariat, President Buhari said:

‘‘Definitely, the reasons such incompetence manifested have to be
explained to the nation. After the elections, we have to know exactly
what happened and who is responsible.

‘‘The constitution and the laws protect INEC but they must not take
us for granted. If for example, the National Assembly refused to approve
what INEC wanted, then INEC would have more than enough reasons why
they couldn’t perform.

‘‘If the time for the constitutional elections, four years after was
not obeyed by the government and the system, INEC will have a case. But
we do not understand why this inefficiency and we have to move into
details after the election to find out who’s responsible.’’

Noting that the electoral commission had all the time and resources
it needed to conduct the polls, the President said there was no
justification ‘‘to wait for only six hours to postpone the votes’’, in
the early hours of February 16.

The President also used the occasion to warn all political actors to
ensure an environment free from intimidation and violence for all
eligible citizens to peacefully cast their ballot on the Election Day.
The President announced that he has directed security agencies to
contain any acts of lawlessness before, during and after the elections.

‘‘We are not going to be blamed of trying to rig the elections. I
want Nigerians to be respected. Let them vote whoever they want across
the parties. I am not afraid, I have gone to all 36 states and Abuja and
I think I have enough support across the country,’’ he said.

President Buhari urged all APC supporters to vote peacefully in the upcoming elections.

‘‘We have so much to do and I think we should again go back to
our loyal, committed people in all constituencies. If anything happens
we have nobody to blame. We have to tell our constituencies that they
have to be patient and act in a very responsible way by going peacefully
to vote again, and they should depend on party representatives at each
of the 176,000 polling units,’’ he said.