The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has in a volte-face expressed confidence in the ability of Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to conduct the March 28 and April 11 general elections, apparently taking a cue from President Goodluck Jonathan’s insistence that he had no plans to sack the INEC chairman.
National Chairman of the party, Dr Adamu Mu’azu, who disclosed his party’s new stance yesterday during a press conference in Abuja, asserted that although the elections were postponed owing to INEC’s poor preparation, the party was confident that Jega would deliver free, fair and credible elections.
According to Mu’azu, “I want you to know that President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Prof Jega and his team to INEC’s leadership. I am sure the president thought very well before he appointed them.
“Secondly, you have asked me about my confidence in Jega; my answer is not far-fetched. At the press briefing, as a candidate Jonathan stated his confidence in Jega, and he is the candidate of my party.
“We have confidence in Jega; that his team will conduct a very free, fair, transparent and credible election in the country,” he said.
DAILY POST recalls that the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization spokesman, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, recently accused the INEC helmsman of deliberately refusing to tell Nigerians the whole truth about the postponement, “thus providing the APC a questionable platform to accuse us of complicity in the decision to postpone the elections.”
He added that the statistics of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collection for states and geo-political zones before the postponement of the elections buttressed “Jega’s contrived grand conspiratorial alliance with the APC to fraudulently secure victory in the elections.”
The party had also accused the electoral body of meeting with APC leaders in Dubai to strategize on how to rig out President Goodluck Jonathan in the coming elections.
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