Do not succumb to false alarm on Edo election, PDP tells INEC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted to the call by the Nigerian Police and the Department of State Services, DSS, for the postponement of Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State, urging INEC not to succumb to the false alarm, just as Governor Ayodele Fayose has said the APC was afraid of losing the election.

It would be recalled that the police and DSS, had on Wednesday, at a press briefing in Abuja, asked INEC to postpone the election, citing threats of attacks by terrorists and extremists.

The PDP, in a statement by its spokesman, Dayo Adeyeye, described the call as “Shocking, Bizarre, and Confusing.”

According to the party, it was taken aback that In a statement Wednesday afternoon, that the advise is coming a day “after the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari was present at the Mega Rally of its Party, the APC in Benin City which was concluded without any hitch.

The party said, “It is on record that INEC recently conducted a ‘hitch free’ Senatorial By-Election in Borno State which is a high-point of insurgency in the Country but the Security Agencies saw no reason to call-off the Election. It is therefore lamentable to hear from these same security agencies that the Election cannot be held in a State where in less than 24 hours, the President and all the APC leaders and members had an uninterrupted Rally.

“We are calling on the President, Muhammadu Buhari to caution the security agencies and direct them to provide full security, and also to desist doing anything that will jeopardize this forthcoming Gubernatorial Election in Edo State. We are equally counting on INEC not to succumb to this false alarm by acting independently and holding election as scheduled.

“We hope that this advice from the security agencies are not in concert with the APC of having seen the indices of loosing the Edo State Gubernatorial Election to the PDP”.

In a similar vein, Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has condemned the call, adding that it has become obvious that the All Progressives Congress, APC, is afraid of losing the election and using security agencies to cause a postponement of the election.

Read also: No way! INEC shuns GCE, DSS, police, insists Edo poll must go on

Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said: “Democracy in Nigeria has now graduated from inconclusive elections to postponement of elections in other to return APC candidates at all cost.

“Within two year, the APC government not only destroyed the economy of Nigeria, it has destroyed the legacy of free, fair and credible electoral process bequeathed on the country by the PDP.”

“The questions Nigerians must ask the APC-led federal government are; what security threat can overcome over 50,000 security personnel in an election holding in just one out of the 36 States in Nigeria? If election must be postponed in just one State because of security threat, what will then happen in 2019 when elections will be conducted in the entire country?

“No doubt, this is a game being played by the APC because it has become so imminent that the party cannot win the election if it is held on Saturday as scheduled.

“The postponement is obviously meant to give room for the APC to perfect a new rigging strategy and lovers of democracy in Nigeria should begin to see how the APC aims at perpetuating itself in power beyond 2019 even now that the party had been rejected by Nigerians”, he stated.

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews…

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