INEC working for PDP, Oshiomhole alleges

…Says 2 RECs openly campaigning for opposition

OBIORA IFOH, Abuja

Ahead of Saturday presidential election, National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomohle, has accused the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof Yakubu Mahmud, of working hard to favour the main opposition People Democratic Party (PDP).

Oshiomhole specifically said that the leadership of “INEC is unfair to APC,” thereby alleging that “INEC is working more for the PDP, based on evidence I can show.”

Addressing a news conference Wednesday in Abuja, Oshiomhole said there were two Resident Electoral Commissioners who have been “virtually campaigning line by line with the PDP in the South-south.”

Before now, the main opposition PDP had accused the electoral empire for working for the ruling APC but shockingly, the APC thought otherwise.

Oshiomhole said, “If anything, this INEC has been very unfair to the APC. But we just discovered that we have a responsibility. The fact that we are a governing party imposes on us a certain level of code that you can’t be seen to rubbish every institution, because if we rubbish everything, it would mean that we don’t want election.

“INEC believes everything the PDP says. As we speak, there are two Resident Electoral Commissioners who are virtually campaigning line by line with the PDP in the South-south.

“INEC, without giving us any explanation and without any concrete evidence went ahead to say we can’t field candidates in Zamfara, thereby seeking to award, without any context and nullify democracy in Zamfara state. Is that the way your friends behave if they are your friends.

“INEC is working more for the PDP, based on evidence I can show. How can they explain that a court of competent jurisdiction gave orders in Zamfara to say this candidate is eligible to contest election and another high court in Abuja also gave a verdict saying APC did not conclude its primaries, but did not give order to INEC. There is no order issued by the Federal High Court in Abuja. The Court of Appeal made a pronouncement on this matter today that there was no order from the court in Abuja, but that there was a concrete order from a Zamfara High Court which upheld the primaries that was conducted in Zamfara.

“The INEC Chairman has said that when there are two court orders, they will adopt the last judgement. In Zamfara state, the Abuja judgement came first and the Zamfara judgment came last even though it is the same say.

“More as INEC has said they will always obey the last judgement, when it came to the Zamfara issue, they changed the goal post. As media, you have to be careful. When you say people alleged there were meetings and can’t even cite any, it is a disservice. We have been at the receiving end of abuse.

“There is a candidate in Kano whose nomination we forwarded to INEC, but they changed the nomination and as we speak, we are in court over that. We showed our evidence.”

On the allegation that the ruling APC was planning to rig the Saturday presidential election, the Edo born politician said: “When I saw Atiku talking about rigging today, i laughed. Do you remember the confession of the former Deputy Senate President who, on national television and not social media where anything is possible, narrated how President Obasanjo used him and Atiku to rig election, how they wrote results, how they collude with INEC.

“This same Atiku was in office when Mantu was doing those things. So, if PDP functionaries have enumerated how they use to rig election, how can in all fairness point to President Muhammadu Buhari who has been victim of election rigging three times such that in our legal history it is part precedent that the Supreme Court was persuaded to accept that election where ballot papers had no serial number was okay and not a major infraction.”

When asked whether he was exercising any fair that his party my loose, Oshiomhole said: “This election is for us and no election can be this easy for us. All we need is one man one vote and we will defeat the PDP. There will be no violence, no fighting. Just the votes which will be counted and we will win.”

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