The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC), under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, is fuelling
trouble following its refusal to withdraw the 4,000 All Progressives
Congress (APC) members it secretly registered as independent observers
for the July 14 and September 22 governorship elections in Ekiti and
Osun states respectively.
The PDP wants INEC to note that the people of Ekiti and Osun states are
already aware of plots to use the illegal observers to manipulate the
electoral process, endorse irregularities, approve fictitious results
and subvert the will of the electorate in favour of the APC, and are
ready to resist such.
INEC, in this design, should not forget that these states are immutable
strongholds of the PDP; that the citizens are politically sophisticated
and will in no way hesitate to confront, with all energy available in a
democracy, any attempt by anybody to sabotage the election.
It is an incontrovertible fact that the PDP has the largest demography
of genuine followership and unprecedented mass appeal across Ekiti
State, particularly due to the sterling performance of Governor Ayo
Fayose; we also have the most popular candidate in this election and the
direction of the political tide is clear to all.
In this regard, the national leadership of the PDP states in very clear
terms that our structures across all the electoral wards in Ekiti and
Osun states have been put at alert, as we will not allow anybody to use
any means whatsoever to manipulate the electoral process.
The PDP therefore issues this as a direct caution to these illegal
observers to steer clear of Ekiti and Osun states and also to desist
from testing the will of the people as they will in no way stomach any
attempt by anybody to subvert their will at the polls.
On this note, we charge the INEC Chairman to immediately douse the
tension by instantly withdrawing the illegal observers and constituting
a process of selecting new and genuine observers with full participation
of all major stakeholders, particularly the political parties contesting
in the elections. Anything short of this is unacceptable and will be
highly and firmly resisted by the people.
