PDP Kicks, As INEC Suspends Rivers Elections

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has kicked against the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) suspending the Governorship and Assembly elections in Rivers State.

Rather, the PDP has called on the electoral body to announce the results of the polls, which it said had already been won and lost. The main opposition party described the suspension of the elections as manipulative schemes by the INEC and the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government.

A statement on Sunday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, flayed the suspension order by INEC, saying the results of the elections had already been collated.

The statement said: “The PDP alerts that this is a premeditated plan by the APC-led Federal Government to use the instrument of INEC and security agencies to truncate the wishes of the Rivers people as already delivered at the polling units.

“Our party contends that elections have been concluded in Rivers state; results of the Governorship and House of Assembly polls have been declared at the various polling units, wards and local government collation centres and all returning officers and political parties in the ballot conclusively have the figures.

“It is therefore directly incumbent on INEC to declare the final results instead of deliberately creating openings for the subversion of the final process; a development, which exposes the Commission’s complicity with the Buhari Presidency and the APC to enmesh the election into unnecessary crisis.

“Our party cautions INEC to note that a lot of innocent Nigerians have already been killed by the APC in its desperation to forcefully take over Rivers state.

“The commission should therefore save the state from more bloodletting by immediately declaring the results. Furthermore, the PDP calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to reflect on the bloodlettings that have characterized this election, which many Nigerians believe, would have been averted if he had signed the Amendment to the Electoral Act.

“Mr. President should immediately call the security agencies (who have been annexed as departments of the APC) to end their siege to our electoral process. Any further delay is a recipe for escalation of crisis in our nation.”