By Bimbo Ogunnaike
Ahead of Saturday’s governorship elections in Kogi State, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of working with the All Progressives Congress(APC), to muddle up and manipulate the electoral processes” to favour the ruling party.
The opposition party made the allegation in a statement issued on Tuesday by National Spokesperson of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan.
PDP said INEC’s failure to openly inform stakeholders on the election modalities, particularly the use of card readers, the mode of accreditation, voting, as well as collation, transmission and declaration of election results from the polling units to the final declaration, raised questions on the sincerity of the commission to deliver a credible election.
The statement alerted that, such suppression of vital information ahead of this crucial election heightens public suspicion and allegations of conspiracies between INEC and APC to muddle up and manipulate the electoral processes to favour the APC.
“The situation is already generating tension in the state, given the insistence of the people for a transparent, free and credible election that will only reflect their wishes and aspirations at the polls.
PDP charged the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu not to, “allow the Commission to be entangled with the sinister plots of the APC. He should immediately clear the air on the manner of accreditation of voters, checking of voter register disparities, the modality for voting as well as whether the commission will deploy manual or electronic transmission of election results to the final declaration.”
The party called on INEC to know that the party and the people of Kogi state are not leaving anything to chance in this election.
“Our party, therefore, requests the management of INEC to provide answers to these crucial issues within the next 24 hours as its silence is already spawning anxieties, which are capable of triggering serious crisis ahead of the election,” the statement added.
