INEC’s defence of APC suspicious – PDP cries out

The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organization (PPCO) has expressed reservations over what it said was the haste by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to haul insults at the party and defend the All Progressives Congress (APC) over an alleged pressure on the electoral body to drop the display of results at polling center, alleging that body is being compromised ahead of the polls.

The party which stated this in a statement, Thursday, by Kola Ologbondiyan, Director, Media & Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organization, wondered why INEC would resort to insult instead of reassuring Nigerians that the election will be free and fair.

“Nigerians were shocked when the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, through his media aide, hauled insults at the PDP as “hallucinating” in response to PDP’s caution to the commission not to succumb to pressure and enticements by the APC and the Buhari Presidency to drop the result display and the electronic transmission of results to its main server,” the statement read.

“In resorting to insults and engaging in a campaign of calumny instead of words of assurances to stakeholders, INEC has made a dive into the arena and accentuated anxieties by Nigerians as well as the international community that it is being compromised by the APC and the Buhari Presidency.

‘However, these needless insult of our party notwithstanding, we shall continue to hold the Prof Yakubu-led INEC to its responsibility to deliver a transparent, free, fair and credible 2019 general election.

“It is also instructive for INEC to know that nothing will deter us from monitoring all the processes leading to this year’s general elections and hold the commission accountable on every perceived infraction.

“The PPCO restates firmly that on no account must INEC drop the display of results at the polling units and the electronic transmission of results to its server from its guidelines as being pressured by the APC and Buhari Presidency.

“PDP Presidential Campaign also rejects any plan to use former National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) members as polls officials as this will amount to handing over the electoral process directly to the APC and the Buhari Presidency.