President Muhammadu Buhari |
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday in Lagos raised alarm over
President Muhammadu Buhari's alleged plan to extend the tenure of
Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alhaji Abubakar Idris, by another six
months.
National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, rejected
Buhari’s plan, describing extension of IG Idris’s tenure as an
opportunity for the president to perpetrate his rigging plan for 2019.
Ologbondiyan made this objection while speaking with newsmen, saying
that the party was right now aware that the IG had surrounded all the
state commissioners of police with his own men, who would be following
them to any strategic meeting and spying for him.
Ologbondiyan spoke in the company of spokesperson, Presidential
Campaign Council of PDP, Umar Sani, saying that even from President
Buhari’s body language, it was quite clear that he was not ready to give
Nigeria free and fair elections, come 2019.
He said: “We reject in totality the extension of tenure of the
Inspector-General for another six months. We are aware that doing so the
president wants to perpetrate his rigging plan for 2019 election.
“Our party is also aware that the IG has surrounded the commissioners
of police with his own men who would be following them to a strategic
meeting, any meetings and be spying for him. We want to appeal to the
Inspector- General of Police to insulate the police from politics.
“President Buhari is totally against free and fair elections in the
country as his refusal to sign the amended Electoral Act had shown, even
as he said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which
promised not to use Incident Form, which allowed for rigging in past
polls, was coming out with a format not quite different from one it was
trying to discard.
“So the position of PDP is that INEC has a situation room. INEC must
allow EU and all other international, as well as local observers, have
access to the situation rooms to guarantee free and fair elections,” the
party spokesperson said, noting that the ruling All Progressives
Congress (APC) was able to rig the recently concluded Osun governorship
poll due to its (commission) refusal to allow election observers to the
situation room.”
He, however, assured that the PDP was poised to burst all the rigging
plans by the APC in the coming polls, saying that despite all barriers
put in place, the party was able to let the world know it won the last
Osun poll, which was thereafter manipulated.
Ologbondiyan appealed to Nigerians not to allow themselves to be
scared by the instruments of government, saying they should all come out
on election days, exercise their right and also ensure that they
protected their votes from being stolen.
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