As the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to shift the date for the 2019 elections continues to elicit reactions, President Muhamamdu Buhari will today meet with the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to map out strategies in reaction to the development.
BusinessDay gathered that the meeting will also involve all members of the Board of Trustees of the APC in what is regarded as a gathering of the party’s think tank.
Top officials of the party had been meeting at various levels to map out further actions in response to several issues thrown up by the postponement, especially plans by the main opposition Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) to resume campaigns, BusinessDay Villa sources revealed.
To this end, the meeting which is expected to be attended by President Buhari from 11.00 am is expected to come up with resolutions on further actions ahead of the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections coming up on Saturday, February 23, across the country.
Meanwhile, the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has disclosed that intelligence reports available to it have established the postponed Presidential and National Assembly elections were deliberately sabotaged by President Buhari and the APC.
In statement released Sunday afternoon through the party’s official twitter handle, @OfficialPDPNig, the party stated that contrary to simulated stance by the Buhari Presidency and Adams Oshiomhole, chairman of APC, “fresh facts have confirmed that the FG and the APC have been sabotaging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in a well-orchestrated plot to engineer a staggered presidential election”.
BusinessDay, meanwhile, also gathered that the APC NEC meeting will review the cost of mobilising the party’s officials for the botched election and how to raise more money for the rescheduled election.
Adams Oshiomhole, APC national chairman, had lamented bitterly about INEC’s last-minute decision to shift the election which was said to have unsettled the party and caught it unawares
Oshiomhole had noted that apart from the inconveniences suffered by the political parties, the huge cost of mobilising members as well as the psychological trauma will be difficult to compensate for.
BusinessDay also gathered that the party is not happy with information from the APC grassroots supporters as feelers and feedback from its members from the field show that the party may not have made much success of the election if it had held as scheduled last Saturday.
Members are attributing it to the backlash from the party primaries where a lot of strong party stalwarts abandoned the party for “greener pastures”.
Some of the strong stalwarts who have managed to remain in the party are also said to be unhappy about the funding arrangements as many are said to be using their personal funds to run the party’s affairs, especially at the state level.
“We are coming to Abuja to discuss these issues and many others. We are just lucky that the election was postponed and l hope that we will learn from the shortcomings so that we will not be disgraced at the polls come next Saturday,” said one of the party officials who preferred not to have his name in print.
The PDP statement alleging sabotage said some individuals working on behalf of the APC in collusion with some of INEC’s staff, engineered actions that affected the distribution and delivery of INEC sensitive materials to designated locations, thereby frustrating the electoral process.
“We also have details of how a hired a team of data hackers corrupted the voters register, with a view to cause mass confusion and voters suppression on the election day,” PDP claimed.
The party stated that many registered voters with PVCs would have arrived their polling centres on election day only to discover that their names have disappeared from the register in their units supposedly as a consequence of the digital manipulation of the voters’ register.
PDP’s statement also indicated intelligence available to it details how agents of the Buhari Presidency infiltrated the distribution system and ensured that sensitive election materials did not arrive at the designated locations, with the view to stall elections in several states of the federation. This, it says, was in addition to deliberate swapping of sensitive election materials between different states and LGAs so as to muddle up the process and stall election in affected areas.
“In some of states like Edo, sensitive materials did not arrive at their designated points on APC interruption,” PDP claimed.
PDP identified Amina Zakari, a high-ranking INEC official alleged to be a relative of the president, to have played a pivotal role in the election sabotage.
If elections had been conducted with the said logistical challenges, the end-game was to have a staggered election “where the Presidency can use security agencies to subvert the will of the people at the polls”, the party claimed.
This, it said, would have been executed by suspending elections in opposition strongholds to enable the government deploy security agents in securing victory for the incumbent. A simultaneous, nationwide election, as it appears, would make this less possible.
TONY AILEMEN, Abuja, & CALEB OJEWALE, Lagos
