• Wednesday, April 24, 2024
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Election postponement: Plot by PDP to avoid defeat- Buhari Campaign Organization

Muhammadu Buhari

The Presidential Campaign Organization of President Muhammadu Buhari, has hit hard at the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), suggesting that party had allegedly connived with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the 2019 general elections to avoid defeat.

Spokesperson for Buhari’s reelection campaign committee, Festus Keyamo, said in a statement shortly after the postponement that the Buhari Campaign Organization was disappointed with the postponement.

“We condemn and deprecate this tardiness of the electoral umpire in the strongest terms possible”.

“President Muhammadu Buhari had since cooperated fully with INEC by ensuring everything it demanded to conduct free and fair elections were promptly made available to it”.

“This news is therefore a huge disappointment to us and to our teeming supporters nationwide and around the world, many of whom have come into the country to exercise their franchise.

“We do hope that INEC will remain neutral and impartial in this process as the rumor mill is agog with the suggestion that this postponement has been orchestrated in collusion with the main opposition, the PDP, that was never ready for this election.

“We note that all the major credible demographic projections have predicted a defeat of the PDP and it seriously needed this breather to orchestrate more devious strategies to try and halt President Buhari’s momentum.

“It did the same as the ruling Party in 2015, when it realized the game was up, by orchestrating the postponement of the 2015 elections by six weeks. Now, it may be up to its old trick again,” the statement said.

Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, had shifted Saturday’s elections by one week to next Saturday February 23, for the Presidential and National Assembly elections, while the Governorship and State Assemblies elections earlier scheduled for March 2, will now hold on March 9.

The INEC chair attributed the postponement to challenges of logistics and promised that the commission will make adequate provision for the polls next week.

Keyamo said further that the Buhari Campaign had earlier raised the alarm that the PDP is bent on discrediting the process the moment it realized it cannot make up the numbers to win this election.

It urged INEC not collude with the PDP stressing that as early as Friday morning, some known PDP Social Media influencers unwittingly announced this postponement, but quickly deleted the message and apologized to the public that it was fake news.

Keyamo called on Nigerians to support INEC in its challenges, and prevent the commission from being compromised by the opposition.

“We do not want to be forced to a situation of announcing our total loss of confidence in INEC, because we know where that would leave our democracy.

“It is in the light of the above that we wish to appeal to Nigerians and our supporters to be patient, calm and resolute despite this temporary setback.

“Let us not give anyone, especially the PDP, the opportunity to plunge this nation into a crises, which is what they earnestly desire. Its imminent defeat is just a few days away.

“Lastly, we wish to draw the attention of INEC and the world to observe that the PDP has clearly and openly said it plans to announce parallel results through some funny device it has procured or developed.

“We wish to reiterate that it is only INEC that is legally and constitutionally empowered to declare results and it constitutes an offence for anyone to do so,” the statement said”.