The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday unequivocally rejected the Independent National Electoral Commission’s plan to conduct a supplementary election in Anambra state.
The decision followed the flaws that trailed the November 16 poll, which compelled INEC to declare it inconclusive and therefore, opted for what it called ‘supplementary election’.
However, the opposition party, APC turned down the option of supplementary election but rather, called for total cancellation of the election. APC had boycotted the Idemili re-run election held on Sunday.
Lai Mohammed, APC’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, in a statement called on INEC to critically look into the extent of sabotage in the Saturday gubernatorial election.
”First, the electoral commission proposed make-up election in only 65 polling units in Obosi before scaling things up to a supplementary election ‘in those areas where election was cancelled,” it said.
“But we say, without equivocating, that a total cancellation of the election and the organization of a fresh poll, under the supervision of a credible Resident Electoral Commissioner, will be acceptable to our party.”
“It is not enough for INEC’s detached Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to tell the nation that an INEC official sabotaged the election in a certain part of the state, he must tell the nation who this fellow is, who he/she is working for, what is the extent of the damage he/she has done to this and previous elections, and whether or not he/she has access to the commission’s database of voters’ register, which was apparently tampered with for Saturday’s election.
”Prof. Jega must also tell Nigerians why 16 Electoral Commissioners, who migrated to Anambra days before the election ostensibly to supervise things, could not ensure the success of an election in a single state, when even a polling unit behind the INEC office in Awka did not get voting materials till after 9 a.m. on election day”.
On the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) position that the election was free and fair, the APC spokesperson had this to say, “In its inordinate ambition to humiliate our party at all costs, the PDP has ended up humiliating itself and embarrassing the nation.
“Or how else does one describe a bizarre situation in which a party will describe as free and fair an election in which its own candidate and his family could not find their names in the voters’ register? The joke is indeed on the PDP!
“It is now clear who the PDP is working for, and that the party has no qualms about sacrificing its own candidate and disgracing the nation as long as it will achieve its aim of humiliating the APC.”
