APC a threat to Nigeria’s democracy —PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has labelled the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Federal Government as threats to the nation’s democracy following last Saturday’s governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi.

The party insisted that the Kogi West Senatorial re-run election would not be any different from the governorship polls, saying as long as the figures in the main election were fundamentally flawed, the proposed rerun could not reflect the wishes of the electorate.

The party said in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, that “Nigerians are wondering if it would make any sense to participate in an electoral process that is already deficient.”

The PDP also expressed doubt about the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) capacity to conduct credible polls in the country.

The statement read: “Nigerians across board have completely lost faith in the nation’s electoral process given that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has been annexed and cannot conduct any free, fair and credible election. For us in the PDP and, we believe, to majority of Nigerians as well, Prof. Yakubu is the worst electoral umpire in the political history of our nation.”

The party did not spare security agencies, accusing them of connivance in electoral manipulations and infractions.

It added: “The police and the military high commands have been reduced to tools of election brutality to ensure that votes do not count. Even the police high command has openly admitted that the police is incapable of protecting voters and votes; thus validating the reported involvement of security agents in the brutalization of voters and disruption of electoral process.

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“More distressing is the fact that Nigerians, particularly our members and supporters in Kogi and Bayelsa States, are still in trauma over the murderous November 16 elections. A lot of our people have been killed and our members are still grieving.

“It is public knowledge that all accredited local and international observers, including the Civil Society Situation Room, have declared that the elections did not meet the minimum standard for credible election and have unanimously called for outright cancelation.

“There is indeed nothing to indicate that more people will not be massacred in the proposed Kogi West Senatorial re-run election. It is therefore doubtful if Nigerians will be prepared to participate in that re-run given their sordid experiences in the last election.

“There is already a growing consensus across the nation that participating in elections by INEC as presently constituted under the Buhari Presidency would amount to helping to legitimize illegitimacies and outright criminalities.”

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