ADC: Election Postponement Irresponsible, Scandalous

By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has described the postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the day Nigerians had prepared to cast their votes as irresponsible and scandalous.

The National Chairman of the party, Chief Ralphs Nwosu, in a statement Saturday by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Ms. Yemi Kolapo, said that the fact that INEC had, until the morning of elections, assured Nigerians that it was fully prepared for the conduct of free, fair and credible elections despite concerns from credible quarters, made the sudden postponement suspicious.

To this end, Nwosu called for the immediate resignation of both the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and President Muhammadu Buhari, who he said, were the author of the script being presented by the former, noting that the flimsy excuse of logistics issues could not have surfaced on the very day of the elections.

The chairman stated: “Nigerians to reject the sit-tight script of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which he said had unfortunately been unveiled with the most irresponsible and scandalous postponement of the Presidential and National Assembly elections on the day Nigerians had prepared to cast their votes.

“This is a well orchestrated ploy by the APC to rig the elections that they know they will not win, considering Nigerians’ open resentment for the despotic and clueless leadership style of President Muhammadu Buhari and his cohorts, which they have demonstrated at every APC mega rally, even in their strongholds.

“No discerning Nigerian would again trust the perpetrators of this biggest embarrassment in Nigeria’s democratic history to conduct any credible election in Nigeria. The INEC chairman must, therefore, resign immediately and a competent chairman announced with immediate effect. President Buhari must also resign for taking Nigerians for granted and making a mockery of the country’s democracy before Nigerians and the international community.”

Nwosu stressed that one of the strategies of the presidency and APC was to make the opposition parties spend all their resources, mobilising their agents and officials to travel to their duty posts.

According to him, “As at now, inasmuch as I can only speak for our political party, I can say, authoritatively, that billions of naira have been spent by both the party and our candidates on logistics and agents.”

Nwosu noted that Nigerians have never had it this bad, noting that the 2015 postponement by the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration was done two weeks before elections, and when sensitive materials had not been shamefully dispatched as in the case of the present INEC under Buhari.

“How can a responsible government wait till when all these have been done to cancel all arrangements and postpone elections? For wasting both the executive/business time and hard earned resources of the opposition and Nigerians, at large, owing to the ruling government’s desperation to cling to power by all means, both the INEC chair and the President are not expected to stay one more minute in office.”