PDP Condemns Postponement of Elections, Asks INEC Chairman to Resign

INEC postpones general elections by a week, less than five hours to the start of the polls. The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, announced the decision at a short press briefing held at 2:44 am on Saturday morning in Abuja.

According to him, the Presidential and National Assembly elections, initially scheduled for today, February 16, will now hold on February 23, while the governorship and state houses of assembly elections will take place on March 9.

Breaking News: The #NigeriaDecides2019 Elections now to hold on; 23rd February, 2019 for Presidential and National Assembly while the Governorship, State House of Assembly and the FCT Area Council Elections is to hold on 9th March, 2019. pic.twitter.com/6zhvBLQe2a

— INEC Nigeria (@inecnigeria) February 16, 2019

In the wake of this, there has been mixed reactions from Nigerians and the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus has said that the ‘shoddy’ arrangements for this election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is a deliberate predetermined agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari to cling on to power.




Prince Secondus stated that the postponement which is 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.

Read Also: INEC Postpones General Election

The PDP leader also 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.

He emphasized that the postponement is a plot by the ruling party to cling to power. Having failed in all their nefarious options to enable them to 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.

He accused the APC in connivance with the INEC to 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 tune having failed in the earlier ones”.

He stated further

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.

Secondus 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.

Check out: APC Condemns Postponement of Election 

The PDP 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, which the party considered as an indication of what he wants to do.