INEC clears the air, says no creation of additional 30,000 polling unit anywhere
The speculation and accusations of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over what it called fresh plot by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to secretly create 30,000 illegal polling units in areas in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Commission’s chairman, Prof Yakubu Mahmud on Monday rested the crisis by stressing that there is no plan to create additional polling unit anywhere in Nigeria.
The PDP had in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, weekend, said its investigation showed that “this is part of the grand design by the commission under Prof Mahmud Yakubu to rig the 2019 general elections in favour of Buhari and his APC.”
The PDP in the statement hinted the possibility of constituting a shadow cabinet to redirect the county’s economic recovery policy and good governance ahead of chances of winning presidency next year.
Explaining more on the formation of a shadow cabinet, PDP recalled that in advanced democracies, a shadow cabinet is a group of politicians who hold political post in their party, but whose party is not in government, and a member of the shadow cabinet is a shadow minister and the leader of a shadow cabinet is called the leader of opposition.
It said the PDP meeting also resolved that the party’s doors remained open to all Nigerians, groups and like-minded political parties to foster a strong rallying point in the quest to rescue the nation from the APC and enthrone good governance in our country.
According to Ologbondiyan, the decision was the major resolution of the meeting of the Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) held on Thursday evening in Abuja.
The PDP statement read in parts: “We are aware of series of clandestine meetings between compromised officials of the commission and certain agents of the Presidency and APC, where the plot to sneak in the 30, 000 illegal polling units in some remote areas and through which they plan to allocate votes to Buhari and the APC were perfected.
“Having realised that Nigerians have completely rejected them because of their failures in governance, the Presidency and the APC are now employing all manners of antics to create ways to rig the polls and foist Buhari back on Nigerians.”
“Having completely lost confidence in the integrity of INEC under Yakubu, we unequivocally demand that all processes leading to the 2019 must be subjected to open review of political parties and stakeholders at all levels.
“In this regard, we demand that INEC makes public the location and status of all polling units, as well as the report of its investigation of under-age voters in various parts of the country, particularly Kano and Katsina states.
“Finally, we urge Nigerians to remain vigilant and monitor all processes to ensure that INEC and the APC do not, at any point in the process, manipulate the elections and subvert the will of the people.”
