Briyia exposes INEC use of APC members to rig polls, PDP alleges
By Tunde Opalana, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the manifestation of the erstwhile Cross River state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Frankland Briyia, as an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Bayelsa state, while still in office, is a direct confirmation that the APC used its members to write figures for President Muhammadu Buhari in the February presidential election.
The party claimed that Briyia’s governorship ambition on the platform of the APC, which he announced while still in the confines of his office, amply exposes INEC as a partisan electoral umpire under the watch of Prof. Yakubu Mahmud.
The PDP insisted that the fact that President Buhari did not sanction Briyia, even after he brazenly announced his ambition right in INEC’s facility, betrays APC’s embedded interests in the commission, which manifested in the manipulation of processes related to the presidential elections.
In a statement on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP called on Nigerians to note that INEC in a recent statement denied receiving any resignation letter from Briyia at the time he announced his governorship ambition.
The party urged President Buhari to speak out on allegations in the public space that his Presidency failed to sanction Briyia because of the role he allegedly played in favour of the APC in the presidential election.
“Our party therefore, calls on President Buhari to come out clean on the real reason he failed to sanction the Cross River resident electoral commissioner in line with the law,” the statement read.
Insisting that INEC must be sanitized, the PDP called on the National Assembly to open a public hearing on the issue as a well as effect amendments in the Electoral Act to check the appointment and retention of persons with political leanings as electoral officers as well as recommending stringent sanctions for infringements in that direction.
The party however, expressed confidence that justice will definitely be served at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal where Nigerians repose hope for the retrieval of the presidential mandate stolen by the APC.
