Barely a year to the 2023 election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, said that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government is averse to free, fair, transparent and credible elections in the country.
The party raised the alarm that there is a dangerous design by the Buhari administration and the APC to trigger a serious political crisis that can derail the electoral system, truncate democracy, subvert the corporate existence and turn the nation into another ‘axis of concern’ to the world.
Addressing a world press conference in Abuja, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said that President Buhari’s refusal to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is nothing short of a premeditated and contrived “political abortion” of the will of the people as represented by the elected 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives, who unanimously passed the Amendment Bill in the first instance.
According to him, “It is clear that President Buhari and the APC are erecting roadblocks to the passage of the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill, due mainly to the provision for electronic transmission of election results from the polling units, which will eliminate APC’s plans to manipulate the system, militarise the process, alter election results at collation centers and foist itself again into power against the will of Nigerians.
The PDP noted that the situation is being worsened by the arrogant utterances of some officials of the Buhari-led APC administration, particularly the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who the party said is now subjecting the decision of the generality of Nigerians through the National Assembly to personal parochial and partisan whims.
The party further said that it is appalling that President Buhari, who claims to be fighting corruption, is condoning and encouraging inordinate access to public funds in pursuit of private ambitions, adding that the only way Mr. President can extricate himself is to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill immediately.
The PDP called on all Nigerians, the Organised Labour, Civil Society, Student bodies, Professional bodies, Trade Unions and all lovers of democracy across the world to rise up and impress it upon President Buhari to immediately sign the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill so as to assure Nigerians and avert an impending crisis in the country.
The party charged the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), to stand on the side of democracy, resist the APC and get prepared to use technology that abounds to ensure the direct transmission of election results from the polling units in the 2023 elections.
The party, however, urged President Buhari to practice what he preaches.
