INEC had declared the Nov. 21 election inconclusive following cancellation
of election in 91 polling units. Metuh said that the PDP caucus thoroughly
considered the development arising from the Nov. 21 governorship election ,
following the death of the All Progressive Congress (APC), candidate, Alhaji
Abubakar Audu.
He said that PDP had resolved that with the death of Audu, on Nov. 22, APC
had `legally crashed out’ of the governorship race in accordance with Section
33 of the Electoral Act. Metuh said that APC lost out of the race as no
known law or constitutional provision allowed the substitution of candidates,
once the ballot process had commenced.
“We are not trying to take advantage of Audu’s death. Nigerians will bear us
witness that PDP observes respect to the person and image of late Audu, but
this is the law of our land’’. Metuh said that PDP completely rejected
INEC decision on the directive of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF)
, Malam Abubakar Malami, to allow APC substitute its candidate in the middle of
an election.
“The PDP insists that with the unfortunate death of Audu, the APC has no
valid candidate in the election. ‘’This leaves INEC with no other lawful
option than to declare the PDP candidate, Wada, as the winner of the
election.’’ He said that if APC was allowed to substitute its original
candidate, then, the party would have fielded two separate candidates in the
same election.
“This is a scenario that is completely alien to our electoral laws and to
any known democratic norm and practice world-over.’’ Metuh said that if
after voting in the Saturday’s election, Audu said he was no longer interested
in the election, would INEC have told APC to change its candidate?
“There is no difference between the death and withdrawal of a candidate in
our laws. Laws never separated it. This situation can be termed as
withdrawal. “If Audu had withdrawn on Saturday, election would have
continued and Wada would have been declared the winner’’.
Metuh said that caucus observed that INEC under the leadership of Prof.
Mahmood Yakubu, had lost the confidence of Nigerians. He also restated the
party’s demand for the immediate resignation of Malami, INEC chairman and all
its national commissioners. The PDP image maker added that in order to
save the nation’s democracy from imminent collapse, the PDP would immediately
challenge the unlawful and unconstitutional decision of INEC in the court of
law.
“We are confident that judiciary will restore the proper tenets of our
democracy and that this matter will be settled before Dec. 5. “APC cannot
participate in Dec. 5 elections because the time has elapsed for the party to
substitute its candidate’’. Metuh who stressed that the PDP had not in any
way accused APC of killing Audu, however questioned the rationale of AGF INEC
and APC decision on the issue.
“They are creating a scenario where a loser in primaries will patiently wait
for the winning candidate to finish election and have him either poisoned or
assassinated before the final collation of results.’’
Culled from Vanguard.
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