The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Uche Secondus, has frowned at the comparison of the 2015 and 2019 election postponement by the Buhari government and those loyal to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
DAILY POST reports that in reaction to shift in dates of the 2019 general elections, APC members and supporters are insisting that a similar situation occurred four years ago under the Goodluck Jonathan-led PDP government.
On Saturday morning, Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, said the postponement was not the first and that it would the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) embark on adequate preparations ahead of the rescheduled dates.
In a statement made available to DAILY POST through his spokesman, Ike Abonyi, Secondus said: “The spin doctors chose to be economical with truth by not presenting the correct situation but instead chose to mislead our international friends and gullible public with their lies.
“The 2015 postponement was done days to the Elections and Nigerians and international observers were not yet mobilized for it, unlike the 2019 that was four hours to the election time when all Nigerians and local and international election observers were mobilized to the constituencies.
“Also in 2015, the reasons adduced for the postponement was security which the security chiefs defended by listing the dangerous areas but even at that the INEC then through their Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega declared their readiness but was only bowing to security advisories.
“For records, and for the benefit of international observers, in 2015 the then INEC Chairman Prof Jega announced the postponement on February 8 for the election that was scheduled for February 14, 2015 exactly one week away.
“The National Chairman’s call for Prof. Yakubu’s resignation is a standard practice all over the World that somebody who fails to deliver in such highly sensitive assignment should give way to another person since he is not the only person in the commission
“After all, the INEC boss was assuring the World as at Friday afternoon that the commission was ready for the February 16 poll even when he knew as a fact that the commission was having logistics challenges in the delivery of materials and he never consulted any stakeholder on it”
Secondus said that in 2015 Prof Jega consulted with various stakeholders including civil society groups and political parties before rescheduling the date.
“The National Chairman was therefore right that Prof Yakubu is liable and an accomplice in this APC grand conspiracy to undermine the nation’s democracy by creating confusion among the electorates,” the statement concluded.
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