Chat212 - Mail Summary...
- APC and PDP continued to trade words on the governorship election in Anambra State which INEC had declared inconclusive.
- APC which insisted on the cancellation of the poll accused PDP of shameful electoral malfeasance” in the state
- PDP said the APC’s insistence on total cancellation of the election was aimed at tainting the integrity of the entire electoral process in the country.
Chat212 News Mail... Report
The All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party on Monday continued to trade words on the governorship election in Anambra State which the Independent National Electoral Commission had declared inconclusive.
While the APC which insisted on the cancellation of the poll, accused the PDP of being an accessory to the “shameful electoral malfeasance” in the state , the ruling party described the opposition party as a bad loser.
The opposition party, in a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, wondered why a party would hail an election that its own candidate and his family members did not find their names in the voter register that was used to conduct the exercise.
It said, “In its inordinate ambition to humiliate our party at all costs, the PDP has ended up humiliating itself and embarrassing the nation. Or how else does one describe a bizarre situation in which a party will describe as free and fair, an election in which its own candidate and his family could not find their names in the voter register? The joke is indeed on the PDP.
“It is now clear who the PDP is working for. The PDP has no qualms about sacrificing its own candidate and disgracing the nation as long as it will achieve its aim of humiliating the APC.’’
But the PDP said the APC’s insistence on total cancellation of the election was aimed at tainting the integrity of the entire electoral process in the country.
It said at a news conference in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, that Nigerians should not take the APC seriously.
While saying that the APC praised the commission to the high heavens when it won the governorship election in Edo State, it (APC) condemned INEC when it lost the Ondo State governorship election.
It said, “In Ondo State, the APC (then ACN) came third; during the Delta State rerun senatorial election, APC came fourth; in Anambra State, APC is coming third; but the APC went ahead to discredit Anambra State election.”
The PDP claimed that it was a chief of the opposition (name withheld), who allegedly compromised some staff of the commission in a particular local government area in the state, which led to the inability of the electorate to cast their votes.
In its statement, the APC said the poll should be cancelled because it was grossly-tainted and widely-manipulated.
It also called on INEC to come clear on its claim that the election was sabotaged, with a view to establishing how entrenched the forces of evil within the commission were. The APC also claimed that doing so would help to avert a looming national disaster which an infiltrated, incompetent and conniving INEC could plunge Nigeria into.
The party said it was now apparent that INEC was indeed not taking seriously, the opinions of Anambra residents as well as local and foreign observers that most of the registered voters in the state were willfully disenfranchised on Saturday.
The statement reads in part, “First, the electoral commission proposed a make-up election in only 65 polling units in Obosi before scaling things up to a supplementary election in those areas where election was cancelled.
“But we say, without equivocating, that a total cancellation of the election and the organisation of a fresh poll, under the supervision of a credible Resident Electoral Commissioner, will be acceptable to our party.”
The APC also challenged INEC to quickly carry out an internal investigation to determine the extent to which the election was sabotaged and compromised to the embarrassment of the nation.
It added that what occurred on Saturday might actually be treasonable.
The party said, “It is not enough for INEC’s detached Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to tell the nation that an INEC official sabotaged the election in a certain part of the state; he must tell the nation who this fellow is, who he/she is working for, what is the extent of the damage he/she has done to this and previous elections, and whether or not he/she has access to the commission’s database of voter register, which was apparently tampered with for Saturday’s election.
‘’Prof. Jega must also tell Nigerians why 16 Electoral Commissioners, who migrated to Anambra days before the election ostensibly to supervise things, could not ensure the success of an election in a single state, when even a polling unit behind the INEC office in Awka did not get voting materials till after 9 am on election day.”
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