As the 2019 general election draws nearer, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday threatened to boycott the elections because of alleged bias of the umpire and security agencies against the main opposition party.
The National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, said the party contested against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies, and not the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Ekiti governorship poll held on Saturday, July 14.
Prince Secondus made the claim when he received a Joint International Election Observation Mission fielded by two main American international civil agencies, the National Democratic Institute, (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), at the party headquarters in Abuja.
The National Chairman said the party was consulting with its relevant organs in reviewing the Ekiti election so as to reconsider their position on the 2019 general election.
In a statement from his media office and signed by the media adviser, Ike Abonyi, Prince Secondus said that what happened in Ekiti State was not just electoral fraud but robbery in connivance with INEC and security agencies.
“In the Ekiti State governorship election last Saturday, we did not contest with APC, we contested with INEC and security agencies.
“Ekiti election is strategic to the general election in 2019 and from what happened we are consulting with our people to see whether we would participate in the election or not.”
According to Prince Secondus, a situation where bodies that should be neutral in a contest were brazenly helping to manipulate the process in favour of one party was antithetical to democracy and a dangerous signal.
He said that there were clear indications for all to see that the ruling APC was scheming to engineer more crisis in the land to enable them manipulate the electorate process in their favour in connivance with security agencies.
“For us as an opposition party, we have lost confidence in INEC and security agencies.”
The National Organizing Secretary of the party, Col Austin Akobundu, who also briefed the visiting international agencies said the election involved various electoral frauds through intimidation and ballot snatching.
Akobundu said that INEC’s fraud was so transparent that it produced conflicting figures of the result and had to pull it down from their website.
The leader of the delegation, Dr Pauline H. Bakaer, President Emeritus, Fund for Peace United States, said that they were on the visit to share ideas with the opposition party on their challenges ahead of the 2019 general election.
