Political Briefs
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PRINCE Uche Secondus, former acting national chairman, Peoples Democratic Party PDP, has raised alarm that the nation’s democracy was heading towards a total collapse if the conduct and style of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC under the leadership of Mahmood Yakubu were not checked and curtailed.
According to him, with the way and manner the present INEC has been conducting its activities; it has become very obvious that the INEC chairman lacks what it takes to run the commission.
He added that it has also become imperative that he must be guided if Nigeria’s democracy must be protected. Secondus, in a statement, on Thursday, November 10, noted that recent events involving INEC shows clearly that the commission’s integrity was being challenged.
According him, from Kogi, Bayelsa to Rivers, Imo and Edo States, the conduct of INEC has shown crass incompetence as it has failed glaringly to conduct a free, fair and credible election. He, however, called on all democratic watchers to stand up against the present INEC that he alleged to have shown clearly that its mission is to destroy this democracy by continuously thwarting the will of the people.
“Events surrounding the electoral body since Prof Yakubu took over from Prof Attahiru Jega leaves one with no other conclusion than that it is not only incompetent but obviously a bias agency designed to dance the music of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, rather than that of Nigerians. At every step on the way the commission has compromised its independence by conniving with agents of the APC to manipulate electoral process and undermine the will of the people.”
Secondus described as most unfortunate the fact that the commission was being pushed about with impunity by the ruling APC that is a huge beneficiary of a sound and credible electoral process put in place by the PDP. “The development in Rivers state where some APC agents were caught printing ballot papers has exposed INEC and wondered where the printers got the code number and all the security link if they were not in league with the Commission.”
He calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to condemn the act and denounce APC’s desperation for power. The failure of INEC to conduct credible poll all these while has far reaching implication in the sustenance of democracy in the country as well as ensuring national stability.”
— Nov 21, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT
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