INEC Now Under APC Control, PDP Alleges
It cited the piecemeal release of results of the March 19 rerun election in Rivers State by the commission, which it alleged was done to satisfy the ruling party, as an example.
The Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, made this allegation in an interview with reporters in Abuja on Wednesday.
He alleged that the electoral body was taking instructions from the ruling party on what to do with the outcome of the Rivers rerun which he claimed his party won convincingly.
Before the suspension of announcement of the results, the commission had released the results in nine state constituencies and one federal constituency.
But in the results made available on Tuesday in Port Harcourt and signed by the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Aniedi Ikoiwak, the PDP maintained its lead by winning three federal constituencies while it shared two state constituency seats with its main rival, the APC.
Secondus, who also appraised the conduct of elections by INEC since the assumption of office by the Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, expressed concern that all the elections conducted by the electoral body since then were inconclusive.
He cited the Kogi, Bayelsa and the recent Rivers states’ rerun elections as examples.
Secondus said, “Now in Rivers, because the PDP won all the elections despite the intimidation by the military, the results are being released piecemeal because the APC has failed woefully in all the constituencies.
“It is apparent that the commission has become a department in the APC. The commission is being controlled by the APC. The commission has lost its independence and we have empirical evidence on this.”
Secondus further alleged that the commission had yet to fix a date for fresh election in the state in the areas that were cancelled because it “was waiting for instruction from the APC.”
Punch
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