How Amina Zakari, APC Elements In INEC ‘Caused’ Elections Postponement – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Mrs. Amina Zakari, the controversial National Commissioner at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), of engineering the postponement of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

INEC, in the early hours of yesterday, postponed the Presidential/National Assembly and Gubernatorial/House of Assembly elections to February 23 and March 9, respectively. The elections had been scheduled to hold on February 16 and February 23, respectively.

In a statement by its spokesperson, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, on Sunday, the PDP alleged that fresh facts available to it shows that the ruling APC is “sabotaging” the electoral body.

The opposition party said it, “wishes to alert Nigerians that contrary to simulated stance by the Buhari Presidency and National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, fresh facts have confirmed that elements of the Federal Government and the APC have been sabotaging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in a well-orchestrated plot to engineer a staggered presidential election.

“Nigerians will recall that the PDP had vehemently protested the continued retention of President Muhammadu Buhari’s relation, Mrs. Amina Zakari, in INEC. We have been reliably informed that the same Amina Zakari and another high-ranking INEC commissioner played a pivotal role in assisting the APC and Buhari Presidency in sabotaging the operations of INEC and scuttling the February 16 elections.

“The reason for this is that President Buhari is determined to have a staggered election where he can use security agencies to subvert the will of the people at the polls.

“APC elements in INEC engineered actions that affected the distribution and delivery of INEC sensitive materials to designated locations, thereby frustrating the electoral process.

“We also have details of how a hired a team of data hackers corrupted the voters register, with a view to cause mass confusion and voters suppression on the election day.

“Nigerians would have been shocked that many registered voters in possession of their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) would have arrived their polling centers on election day, only to discover to their amazement that their names have disappeared from the register in their units.

“Intelligence available to us further details how agents of the Buhari Presidency infiltrated the distribution system and ensured that sensitive election materials do not arrive at the designated locations, with the views to stall elections in several states and pave way for a staggered election.

“This is in addition to deliberate swapping of sensitive election materials between different states and local governments so as to muddle up the process and stall election in affected areas. In some of states like Edo, sensitive election materials did not arrive at their designated points on APC interruption.

“The PDP urges Nigerians to continue to be alert in resisting the APC and the Buhari Presidency in their plot to sabotage our elections.

“Our promise to Nigerians is that we will continue to stand with the people in exposing APC’s rigging plots and stopping them from creating more havoc and destruction of our democratic process.

“We therefore call on President Buhari to save himself from further disgrace, as the signpost of enemy of democracy, by ensuring that his cabal and their ilk in APC cease forthwith from tampering with our electoral process.”