By Bimbo Ogunnaike
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Uche Secondus, has expressed fears of of his party participating in the forthcoming governorship elections being planned for Edo and Ondo States in 2020.
Secondus also re-echoed the party’s disappointment in the conduct of the just concluded Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC).
He, therefore, tasked INEC to embark on electoral amendment through the National Assembly to address most of the challenges in conducting elections in the country.
Secondus stated this on Monday while addressing INEC delegation who came to carry out a routine verification exercise at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja.
While addressing some of the operatives of the electoral umpire, Secondus alleged that the INEC integrity was at stake given the trajectory of elections it has conducted so far in the country.
“INEC as presently constituted has integrity questions. Some of the staff have compromised their offices. We advise that INEC should go back to the drawing board and consider the past elections it has conducted.
“Even INEC needs a reform. We can’t continue this way. Is either we practice the American model or adopt the Egyptian model where soldiers shall be part and parcel of the election process,” he said.
Secondus affirmed it was time for INEC to submit the necessary amendments to the National Assembly so that an improved legal framework can be put in place for a free and fair election to be achieved.
The PDP chairman, added that the conduct of the 2019 general elections set Nigeria backwards, explained that some of the bitter lessons are thuggery, killing, militarisation of voting scenes and disruptions of voting process.
Others are the alleged INEC involvement in operating the APC agenda, brigandage, intimidation, coercion and manipulation of results, hijacking of election materials and deployment of military helicopters among others.
Secondus, therefore, advocated for the legalization of electronic voting and ban on military participation in elections.
In his reaction, the INEC Deputy Director, Election and Party Monitoring who headed the delegation, Musa Husunu, said all the comments, observations and concerns of the PDP would be considered.
Husunu, however, reeled out things the INEC team came to do as a matter of routine verification exercise to include evidence of office headquarters, 5 copies of the party’s constitution, list of NEC committee members, physical presence of NEC members, membership registration and books of account.
The party averred that what happened in Osun, Ekiti, Bayelsa and Kogi States were not democratic enough to guarantee future participation in elections by the opposition political parties.
