…says INEC has lost independence

By Ben Agande

Abuja—The Peoples  Democratic Party, PDP, has condemned the intermittent release of the results of the Rivers State rerun elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, saying it was an evidence that the commission has now become an agent of the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Federal Government.

In an interview with newsmen in Abuja, the Deputy National Chairman of the party, Chief Uche Secondus, said that with the way the commission, under the leadership of Professor Mahmoud Yaquub, had fared so far, there was the fear that the forthcoming elections in Edo and Ondo States may not hold.

According to Secondus, the PDP no longer has confidence in the ability of the commission to be impartial and fair in the conduct of elections.

He said: “Now, in Rivers State, because PDP won the election despite the intimidation by the military, the results are being released piecemeal because APC has failed woefully in all the constituencies.

“They haven’t fixed a date for another rerun because of APC. INEC is now being supervised by the leadership of APC and the Buhari administration. The commission is no longer independent and we are losing confidence in it.

“In the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, election date was announced but suddenly because they knew APC was going to lose, they postponed the exercise after we had spent money and time. All these show that INEC is now a parastatal under the APC. The danger is that this current leadership that will conduct the general election in 2019 has been compromised.

“The forthcoming Edo and Ondo States governorship elections are in danger. With what happened in Rivers State, Nigeria is in danger. There may be no election in 2019 with the way INEC is conducting itself.”