Adams Oshiomhole, national
chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says some resident electoral
commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have been
compromised.
Speaking at an emergency meeting
of APC leaders in Abuja on Monday, the chairman of the ruling party asked the
commission to reshuffle such individuals.
He said the APC is not really
interested in where people are posted to, advising INEC to use its discretion.
“Mr President, I also believe
that because you are the president, you have dual responsibility, one is to
ensure that any institution of state that has misbehaved, anybody that is
involved in that act, particularly actions that can weaken the fabric of our
democracy, Mr President, you have a duty to trigger the process that will
compel everyone involved in all of this to account,” he said.
“We cannot be helpless because at
the end of the day all fingers will point at you even as innocent as you are. I
want us to use today to review what has happened (postponement of elections) in
various states. On my part, as they say ‘when the going gets tough, the tough
gets going’, I am much more determined that our message to the the Nigerian
people, we must revive it, we must insist these elections are conducted
properly, some INEC RECs have been compromised, the INEC leadership do not have
the right to impose a corrupt or compromised INEC RECs on us.
“When sufficient doubt has been
raised on the character, integrity of a referee, no responsible match authority
will impose that referee. We don’t care where anybody is posted to but INEC has
the discretion to move people around.”
Oshiomhole also faulted the
commission over the postponement of the general election, saying the party
would go ahead with campaigns irrespective of the directive of the commission
not to do so.
The commission postponed the
exercise barely six hours to the opening of polling stations on Saturday,
citing logistic challenges.
Oshiomhole said INEC does not
have the right to prevent APC from continuing to reach out to the people in the
week to the election.
“If at our level, we are
sufficiently disturbed, what would be the fate of the ordinary man? I think we
need to remind them across the country that elections have been rescheduled and
they should have trust, faith, and remain determined to vote,” he said.
“The process of doing that would
require that we return to campaign between now and Thursday this week. Friday
is not a campaign day. To ask us as a political party not to go out? The
members, our people, would have forgotten. Some would have assumed that ‘look,
I’m not sure what these people want’. And the result could be very, very low
turnout. That is not good for a party that has huge, huge support base. It can
only be good for a party that is not sure of its level of grassroots support.
“So, without consulting INEC, we
are proceeding and we are ready to meet them in court. Because they cannot by
administrative fiat amend or distort extra provisions in the relevant electoral
act and those laws are not secret to INEC.”
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