PDP demands AGF, INEC chairman resignation
(Nigeria) The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has demanded
immediate resignation of the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, Malam
Abubakar Malami and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh who
briefed newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, also rejected INEC’s call on the All
Progressives Congress, APC, to replace its governorship candidate for the Kogi
poll.
He said that the AGF should vacate his office for ``hurrying
and misleading’’ INEC into arriving at an ``unconstitutional decision’’ to
allow the APC substitute its candidate in the inconclusive Kogi election.
Metuh said that PDP was `shocked’ that INEC could allow
itself to succumb to the antics of unlawful directive of the AGF to substitute
a candidate in the middle of the ballot process.
He said: ``We are all aware of the two legal documents
guiding INEC in the conduct of elections; the Constitution and the Electoral
Act have provisions for electoral exigencies.
The legal documents also empower the electoral body to fully take
responsibility for any of its actions or inaction without undue interference
from any quarters whatsoever. We are
therefore at a loss as to which sections of these two relevant laws INEC and
the AGF relied on in arriving at their bizarre decision.
``Bizarre decision to substitute a dead candidate in an
on-going election even after the timelines for such has lapsed under all the
rules.’’
Metuh said that the PDP was taken aback why INEC, a
statutory body with full complements of technical hands in its legal department
would wait for directives of external party on the matter.
``Consequently, the PDP rejected in its entirety, the move
to circumvent the laws and ambush the yet-to-be concluded election by
introducing a practice that is completely alien to the constitution and the
electoral act.
``The clear implication of this action of the AGF and INEC
is that the APC would be fielding two different governorship candidates in the
on-going Kogi election. `This means that INEC would be transferring votes cast
for late Prince Abubakar Audu to another candidate, scenarios that have no
place in the constitution of the land,’’ he said.
Metuh said that since the PDP in respect for the dead, had
since Sunday refrained from making comments on the Kogi election, the party
could no longer maintain such in the face of the `barefaced attack’ on
Nigeria’s democracy.
He said that INEC under the leadership of Yakubu had shown
itself as `partisan, morally bankrupt and obviously incapable’ of conducting a
credible election.
``In view of the foregoing therefore, the PDP demands the
immediate resignation of the INEC chairman. `The call is important as the
nation’s democracy cannot afford to be left in the hands of an electoral umpire
that cannot exert its independence and the sanctity of the electoral process.’’
He said that the PDP National Working Committee had summoned
an emergency National Caucus meeting on Wednesday, November 25 to take decision on the ``obvious threat to
Nigeria’s democracy.’’
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