Put Your House In Order, PDP Tells INEC
Put Your House In Order, PDP Tells INEC
The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Adamu Muazu has tasked the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiry Jega, to put his house in order before March 28 slated for the presidential election. Muazu said the call has become imminent following revelations that the commission was ill-prepared for the elections earlier scheduled to hold tomorrow Saturday, 14 February 2015 and emphasised that the commission must gear it is effort at wholesome readiness for the big game. He noted that while the PDP was ready for the elections for February 14 and was certain of victory and already savouring same, the hope of victory was deferred by the commission following its inadequacies which clearly manifested in the huge gap in the distribution and collection of the permanent voters card and the total registered voters.
Muazu said this at a press conference where the top echelon of the party were in attendance at the Wadata House yesterday in Abuja. According to him: “Taking the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega on his own words, for the 68.8 million registered voters, the commission had only printed and delivered 66.3 million Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) with 1.3 million yet to be delivered and 1.1 million stolen cards yet to be replaced. “Also according to Jega, 45.09 million voters cards were collected by prospective voters representing 65.8 percent of the registered voters and 23.71 million PVCs, representing 34.2 percent were yet to be collected as at February 7th, which is exactly one week to the February 14th earlier scheduled date.
Compare this anomaly with the 2011 elections where not a single eligible voter was disenfranchised “By this account, INEC could not sincerely claim to have been fully prepared for a desirable credible, free and fair election at the time when more than 23 million registered voters were going to be disenfranchised. “Nigerians embraced the idea of PVC as a model to facilitate credible elections and not as instrument of disenfranchisement. “We therefore want to use this forum to urge INEC to use the period of the shift to ensure that it put its house in order and bequeath to Nigerians the desired free, fair and credible elections,” Muazu said.
The chairman said the party had already activated it’s victory mode and was waiting for the election to hold tomorrow and its victory announced and engage in jubilation but the commission has put that in hold. He said the party was affected by the postponement as other parties and wondered at the subjective comments of the opposition caution the All Progressive Congress (APC) to be mature in its politics that would deepen the democratic voyage of the country as there is no other Nigeria as this. “Indeed, we have noted the reactions that trailed this postponement, particularly the very subjective statements from opposition leaders alleging that our great party and the government masterminded the postponement to favour the PDP.
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