PDP alleges INEC is shutting it out of election monitoring process

ayodele johnson

February 15, 2019 7:23 PM

A day to the presidential and federal parliamentary elections in Nigeria, the country's electoral body INEC, has been asked to prove that it is impartial in response to an allegation suggesting that it is favouring the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has been accused of deliberately withholding the accreditation and identification cards meant to be given to the members of the People's Democratic Party (PDP).

This is the demand of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan, the director of publicity for the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization.

The spokesperson noted in a press release on Friday, that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), "has been distributing sensitive election materials in most states of the federation without the Presidential and Senatorial elections results sheets."

According to Ologbondiyan, INEC's failure to give PDP party members their accreditation and identification cards has been viewed as an attempt to give the APC control over the elections.

Mrs. Amina Zakari's appointment as an INEC collation officer in the 2019 elections has been condemned by the PDP due to her ties with President Muhammadu Buhari. - Daily Post Nigeria Mrs. Amina Zakari's appointment as an INEC collation officer in the 2019 elections has been condemned by the PDP due to her ties with President Muhammadu Buhari. - Daily Post Nigeria Pulse Nigeria

He referred to the appointment of Mrs. Amina Zakari, a relation of President Muhammadu Buhari, as a way of creating an advantage for the ruling party.

Controversy over Zakari's appointment

In January, the appointment of Zakari as the Chairperson of INEC's Advisory Committee and Presidential Election Collation Centre Committee, led to protest in the camp of the PDP, who feared an attempt to manipulate the outcome of the presidential election to favour the incumbent.

"Intelligence available to us indicate that this is part of the plot for which President Muhammadu Buhari’s relation by marriage, Mrs. Amina Zakari, has been retained as the head of the INEC collation center.

"The PDP therefore cautions INEC to show its impartiality by immediately releasing the Presidential and senatorial elections result sheet as well as the accreditation cards.

"Any further delay will be a clear recipe for crisis as Nigerians are already highly agitated over the matter," a statement from the PDP reads. Yesterday, the All Progressives Congress through its spokesperson Festus Keyamo denied an intention to suspend an access to the internet and mobile communication.

It insisted that such a move represents a PDP kind of politics.

Peaceful elections

The assurance of a credible election has been repeated on a number of occasions by President Buhari who addressed his countrymen in a television broadcast yesterday.

Some foreign election observers have also paid INEC's chairman a visit to request to be partners in the polls that begin on Saturday, February 16.

ayodele johnson