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Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has come under fire over his recent charge to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the police to ensure future polls reflect the wishes of the electorate.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, yesterday, said not only did Buhari’s comment raise fresh concerns on the credibility of the February 2019 presidential election, it was an admission that elections conducted under his administration were far from being credible.
The opposition party claimed the APC turned Bayelsa and Kogi states to theatres of wars during the recent governorship elections polls, yet the President congratulated the winners of the contests.
According to the PDP, “in his own words, in a meeting with INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, and the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, at the Presidential Villa, Mr. President said, ‘our elections must be done in violent-free atmosphere. The process must be free, fair, decent and devoid of intimidations and malpractices. It is the duty of the police to accomplish that and this is what I expect in the elections immediately ahead and going forward…’
“This is a weighty verdict by Mr. President on the huge electoral fraud perpetrated in the 2019 elections by his party, APC.
“Though the verdict of the Supreme Court on the Presidential Election stands, in total obedience to our laws, the fact remains that the violent manipulations of the 2019 elections in favour of the APC and its candidates will continue to stare our nation in the face.
“Mr. President’s remark shows that in their innermost conscience, beneficiaries of manipulated polls are always confronted with the truth.”
The party charged the leadership of INEC and the police to come out clean on the details of the recent meeting with the President, especially as there are about 28 impending run-offs and by-elections scheduled for this month.
It added: “Our party holds that INEC is an independent electoral commission whose activities and processes are clearly governed by the law and extant rules and not by the dictates or prescriptions of the President.
“Mr. President should therefore steer clear of INEC while the commission must assert its independence and desist from going to the Presidential villa for instructions on elections. Nigerians have their doubts if the hugely compromised INEC under Professor Yakubu can be anything independent.
“However, if, indeed, Mr President is committed to ensuring free, fair and credible electoral process, he should reintroduce the eighth Assembly’s Electoral Act Amendment bill, which he refused to sign, and make a fresh commitment to sign it into law immediately it is retooled to meet current exigencies and passed by the current National Assembly.
“He should order the prosecution of security agents involved in the invasion of polling centers and shooting at voters in recent elections.
“He should also reciprocate the benevolence of Nigerians by recreating an electoral atmosphere like the one that brought him into office in 2015.”
The PDP also said the presidency’s continuous reference to a “presidential successor” less than a year into the President Muhammadu Buhari second tenure, is an indication that the president has lost confidence in his own administration.
It noted that the 1999 constitution (as amended) did not confer on anyone the right to install a president for the country.
“The party further notes that President Buhari’s apprehensions that his will fizzle out before 2023 is also a weighty forewarning to Nigerians not to put any hope whatsoever in the APC.
“The PDP also charges the Buhari Presidency to immediately apologise to the nation over its comment to “hand Nigeria over” insisting that such is a direct affront to Nigerians and a huge insult on their sensibility and sense of sovereignty to freely choose their leader.”
