The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Uche Secondus has said that the party contested against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and the Security agencies not All Progressives Congress, APC, in the Ekiti State governorship election.
Prince Secondus said this when he received a Joint International Election Observation Mission fielded by two main American international civil agencies, the National Democratic Institute, (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) on Thursday, at the party headquarters in Abuja.
The National Chairman said that the party is consulting with its relevant organs in review of the Ekiti election to reconsider their position on the 2019 general election.
In a statement from his media office, signed by the media Adviser, Ike Abonyi, Prince Secondus said that what happened in Ekiti state was not just electoral fraud but robbery in connivance with INEC and security agencies.
“In the Ekiti state governorship election last Saturday we did not contest with APC, we contested with INEC and Security agencies.
“Ekiti election is strategic to the general election in 2019 and from what happened we are consulting with our people to see whether we would participate in the election or not.
According to Prince Secondus, a situation where bodies that should be neutral in a contest are brazenly helping to manipulate the process in favour of one party is antithetical to democracy and is a dangerous signal.
He said that there are clear indications for all to see that the ruling APC is scheming to engineer more crisis in the land to enable them manipulate the electorate process in their favour in connivance with security agencies.
“For us as an opposition party we have lost confidence in INEC and the security agencies,” he said.
The National Organizing Secretary, NOS, of the party, Col Austin Akobundu who also briefed the visiting international agencies on Ekiti said the election involved various electoral frauds through intimidation and ballot box snatching.
Akobundu said that INEC’s fraud was so transparent that it produced conflicting figures of the result and had to pull it down from its website.
The leader of the delegation Dr Pauline .H.Bakaer, President Emeritus, Fund for Peace, United States, said that they were on the visit to share ideas with the opposition party on their challenges ahead of the 2019 general election.
