Political parties blow hot over rejection of Electoral Act

The Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, has condemned the withholding of assent to the 2018 Electoral Amendment Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Imo Ugochinyere, CUPP spokesman, in a statement Friday night, said a president who knows fully well that he did not perform should not be surprised and jittery that all security reports he is receiving on the elections from the security agencies indicate that he will suffer unprecedented electoral defeat in the hands of the consensus opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

He wrote: “President Buhari has expectedly failed again to take advantage of the rare opportunity of the Electoral Amendment to write his name in gold as the President that signed the laws that guaranteed electoral credibility in Nigeria. But yet again, as usual of him, he failed to rise to the occasion, being blinded by ambition and the love of the perks of office.

“It is an act of clear desperation that the President had shown. For each of the four times the Electoral Amendment Bill was presented to him for assent, he waited until the last day of his constitutionally allowed 30 days.

“Nigerians should also be reminded that throughout the amendment process, President Buhari never made any suggestions or proposals to the National Assembly for the improvement of our electoral process but kept delaying and indulging in unnecessary hide and seek until this last minute.

“Rather, the President is willing to allow Nigeria witness her most violent elections when he had opportunity to sign the law which guarantees the freest and most credible elections in Nigeria’s history.

“The entire plan of the APC as we had revealed in earlier communications to the media is how to steal the mandate of the people to perpetuate a failed government in power.

“However, to checkmate a failed regime from this plot to steal the mandate of the Nigerian people in the February 2019 Presidential elections, the opposition will in the coming days unveil the neutralization strategy the Opposition Code 20.

“We, therefore, call on all PVC bearing Nigerians to vote out all APC candidates at all levels where their members in the National Assembly fail to join other patriotic Federal lawmakers to override the veto of the President in the coming days.”