PDP Demands Resignation INEC Boss

                                                    
The Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) has rejected the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) position that it would go ahead to conduct a supplementary election in Kogi State.

The electoral body had in a statement made available to newsmen earlier today and signed by Secretary to the Commission, Mrs August Ogakwu advised the 22 political parties that participated in last Saturday inconclusive election to prepare for the supplementary election to be conducted on 5th December 2015.

But addressing newsmen in response, national publicity secretary of the main opposition party, Olisa Metuh accused the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami of stampeding INEC to take what he called a hasty decision on Kogi State.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice at an event in Abuja today said by the provision of relevant laws, the All Progressives Congress, (APC) could substitute its governorship candidate ahead of the supplementary election to replace its erstwhile candidate, the late Abubakar Audu.

The PDP said it was “shocked that INEC, a supposedly independent electoral umpire could allow itself to succumb to the antics of the APC by following the unlawful directive of an obviously partisan AGF to substitute a candidate in the middle of the ballot process.”

The PDP statement further reads: “that the two legal documents guiding INEC in the conduct of elections; the Constitution and the Electoral Act, have provisions for electoral exigencies as well as empower the electoral body to fully take responsibility for any of its actions or inaction without undue interference from any quarters whatsoever.”

The party called for the resignation of Abubakar Malami and Professor Mahmud Yakubu, the Attorney General of the Federation and INEC chairman, respectively.

“Consequently, the PDP rejects in its entirety, this brazen move by the APC and INEC to circumvent the laws and ambush the yet-to-be concluded election by introducing a practice that is completely alien to the constitution and the electoral act.

“The clear implication of this action of the AGF and INEC is that the APC would be fielding two different governorship candidates in the on-going Kogi election, meaning that INEC would be transferring votes cast for late Prince Abubakar Audu to another candidate, scenarios that have no place in the constitution of the land.

“Whereas the PDP, in honour of the sanctity of human life and respect for the dead, had since Sunday refrained from making comments on the conduct of the election, we can no longer maintain such in the face of the barefaced attack on our democracy.

“This INEC under the leadership of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has shown itself as partisan, morally bankrupt and obviously incapable of conducting a credible election within our laws.

“In view of the foregoing therefore, the PDP demands an immediate resignation of the INEC Chairman, as the nation’s democracy cannot afford to be left in the hands of an electoral umpire that cannot exert its independence and the sanctity of the electoral process”, it added.