Ekiti guber poll: PDP threatens to boycott 2019 polls if…
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has disclosed that the party is considering not participating in the 2019 general polls on the grounds of what it said took place in last Saturday’s governorship election in Ekiti State which was won by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Secondus made the boycott threat on Thursday when he received a joint international election observation mission by two main American international civil agencies, the National Democratic Institute, (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) at the party’s headquarters in Abuja.
A statement signed by the Media Adviser to the PDP national chairman, Ike Abonyi, also quoted Secondus as saying that what happened in Ekiti State was not just electoral fraud but an outright robbery in connivance with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies.
The PDP national chairman said that the party is consulting with the party’s relevant organs in reviewing the Ekiti guber election to reconsider their position on the 2019 general elections.
He said, “In Ekiti State governorship election last Saturday, we did not contest with the APC. We contested with INEC and security agencies.
“Ekiti election is strategic to the general elections in 2019 and from what happened we are consulting with our people to see whether we would participate in the elections or not.
According Secondus, a situation where bodies that should be neutral in a contest are brazenly helping to manipulate the electoral process in favour of one party is antithetical to democracy and portends a dangerous signal.
He said that there were clear indications that the ruling APC is scheming to engineer more crisis in the land to enable them manipulate the electorate process in their favour in connivance with security agencies.
“For us as an opposition party, we have lost confidence in INEC and the security agencies,” he added.
The PDP National Organizing Secretary, Col. Austin Akobundu, who also briefed the visiting international agencies on the conduct and outcome of the Ekiti governorship poll, said the election involved various electoral frauds perpetuated through intimidation and ballot snatching.
Akobundu said that the fraud committed by the electoral umpire was so transparent that it produced conflicting figures of the election results on its website and consequently, had to pull it down from its website.
Leader of the delegation Dr. Pauline Bakaer, president emeritus, Fund for Peace United States, said that they were on the visit to share ideas with the opposition party on their challenges ahead of the 2019 general elections.
