PDP plots fresh poll shift, APC senators

Members of the opposition All Progressives Congress in the Senate, on Tuesday, raised alarm of a fresh plot by the Peoples Democratic Party to postpone the forthcoming general elections slated for March 28 and April 11.

The senators, who walked out of the plenary to address the National Assembly correspondents in the Senate, alleged that the Presidency in collaboration with the ruling PDP were planning to arm-twist the electoral umpire in the country to canvass fresh postponement using the card reader as an excuse.

Their reaction followed the submission of the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, while moving a motion for the summoning of the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, over the planned use of the card reader for the election.

Ndoma-Egba had argued that the use of card readers would contravene Section 52 of the Electoral Act which prohibits the use of electronic device during election.

But the senators, led by their leader, Senator George Akume, insisted at the news conference that anything short of conducting the elections as scheduled, and using the card reader to avoid rigging, might lead to a civil war.

They argued that since the card reader was just meant for the accreditation of the voters, its usage would not constitute a breach of the electoral act as postulated by the senate leader.

The opposition senators alleged that the PDP leadership having failed to use the security challenges and poor collection of Permanent Voter Cards as excuses to postpone the polls again, had started a fresh plot by hiding under the card reader usage.

Akume said, “Elections must be held as rescheduled, it is important that the Independent National Electoral Commission must do this in order to avoid unpleasant consequences.

“Nigeria is a huge and complex society, culturally, structurally, and all hands must be on the deck to avoid the Somalia experience. There would be too many warlords in this country should we fail to do what is right.

“Nigerians deserve the best. Card readers will add value to the conduct of the elections; we are talking about free and fair elections. Time has passed when people carry ballot boxes and papers to their respective rooms, thumb-print and bring them for counting the following day.

“The whole world is watching this country. We have become a laughing stock, we are becoming a banana republic.

“We are even more patriotic than those who are in government. We want elections and card readers must be applied, they must be used, otherwise, the elections can never be free and fair.

“If a country like Ghana can get it right, using the card reader, why can’t the giant of Africa do it? If Sierra Leone can do it, even Liberia, why can’t Nigeria do it? We are waiting for INEC to do it, INEC must use it.

“Card readers are a must to ensure free, credible and acceptable elections. To do otherwise, won’t be acceptable.”

The opposition senators further alleged that the APC representatives, former Heads of State and the former Chief Justices who attended the National Council of State meeting where the issue of election postponement was discussed, strongly opposed the idea.

Akume said, “From the records, we know that all the former Heads of State supported the holding of the election as scheduled. Former Chief Justices, those who know the law also supported the holding of the elections.

“But INEC later said the elections could not hold on the flimsy grounds that the service chiefs said they could not provide security. Security for what?

“We have over 774 local government areas in this country and serious security breaches in the North-East are registered in only 14 local governments and therefore, there was no reasonable grounds to shift the elections.

“We recall that in 1999, there was no election in Bayelsa during the first round of voting, elections were later held.

“Under normal circumstances, we believe the situation is also normal now, these affected areas should have been isolated for the purpose of holding elections at a later date but this was not to be.

“We are all learned people, educated people to know that elections have been held in Columbia, which is perpetually at war with itself, elections have been held in Egypt, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria, in Pakistan, in Mali, Tunisia and other countries.

“Nigeria cannot be an exception. The reason was lack of adequate distribution of PVCs, later, it turned to be inability to provide security cover and we wonder that the multi-national force that has been assembled to fight Boko Haram is just 7,000, including the Nigerian troops and we have a troop level of over 100,000 in this country.

“Why is it not possible to hold elections with adequate security cover for those who are supposed to do their jobs constitutionally? We believe that there is serious manipulation and a deliberate attempt to undermine and to manipulate the democratic institutions and structures.