Election postponement Illegal, a coup —PDP

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national caretaker committee has rejected the reversal of the earlier decision  of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to go ahead with the Edo gubernatorial election.

While insisting on the conduct of the election tomorrow as earlier scheduled, the national leadership of the party, led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, in a statement on Thursday, said tomorrow was sacrosanct, while it accused the security agencies of working with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to scuttle the exercise.

Signed by its national publicity secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, the statement said “sequel to the INEC decision this afternoon to go ahead with the Edo gubernatorial election as scheduled; and the immediate reversal of that patriotic stance, the leadership of the PDP led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has reiterated its earlier position that the Saturday September 10, election date should remain sacrosanct, since there is no tangible reason(s) evident to tamper with the election.

“The call for the postponement of the election by top hierarchy of the security agencies predicated on alleged security threat was a less than ingenious attempt to buy time for the APC, which is clearly heading for a major electoral catastrophe on Saturday.

“It is shameful and, indeed, a major constitutional breach for the security agencies to act in concert with the APC to truncate an election that had been planned for months.

“Nigerians were not deceived by the obvious concoctions of the security agencies whose performances during elections have been less than average since the advent of the Buhari administration. Indeed, they have become instruments in the hands of the ruling party to harass, intimidate and punish opponents.”

The statement added that “the time may be ripe now for President Buhari and the National Assembly to conduct a non-partisan holistic review and investigation of the national security apparatus to save our fledging democracy.”

The postponement of the election by INEC, according to the party, was illegal, unconstitutional and a breach of the peoples’ trust in the commission and the security agencies, adding that “it is a coup against the people of Edo State in particular and Nigerians in general.”

The PDP called on all stakeholders, including the media, civil society organisations, all political parties and indeed all Nigerians and the international community to rise to defend the democracy.