Reactions continue to trail election postponement
Reactions have continued to trail the postponement of the general election in Nigeria by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC had earlier in the day announced the shifting of the polls for presidential and NASS elections due to open at 8 a.m. on Saturday, to February 16, 2019 and will now take place on Saturday, February 23, 2019 INEC said.
Elections for governorships, State House of Assembly and area councils will hold March 9, 2019 the INEC said.
- APC blames INEC, says Buhari provided required resources
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has deplored the last-minute postponement of the elections scheduled to hold February 16 and March 2 by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
In a statement issued shortly after the commission announced the postponement of the elections, Festus Keyamo, Director of Strategic Campaign Communication, APC presidential campaign council, said “We condemn the postponement of the elections, but urge our teeming supporters to be patient and determined.”
The statement expressed “great disappointment” of the party with the shift despite the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari provided everything ÌNEC needed for successful conduct of elections.
“We condemn and deprecate this tardiness of the electoral umpire in the strongest terms possible. President Muhammadu Buhari had since cooperated fully with INEC by ensuring everything it demanded to conduct free and fair elections were promptly made available to it. This news is therefore a huge disappointment to us and to our teeming supporters nationwide and around the world, many of whom have come into the country to exercise their franchise.
“We do not want to be forced to a situation of announcing our total loss of confidence in INEC, because we know where that would leave our democracy,” it said.
The APC presidential campaign said it had earlier raised the alarm that the PDP was bent on discrediting this process the moment it realized it could not make up the numbers to win the election, warning that INEC should not collude with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It accused the PDP Social Media influencers of being the first to predict the postponement of the election.
“We do hope that INEC will remain neutral and impartial in this process as the rumor mill is agog with the suggestion that this postponement has been orchestrated in collusion with the main opposition, the PDP that was never ready for this election. We note that all the major credible demographic projections have predicted a defeat of the PDP and it seriously needed this breather to orchestrate more devious strategies to try and halt President Buhari’s momentum. It did the same as the ruling party in 2015, when it realized the game was up, by orchestrating the postponement of the 2015 elections by six weeks. Now, it may be up to its old trick again.
“It is in the light of the above that we wish to appeal to Nigerians and our supporters to be patient, calm and resolute despite this temporary setback. Let us not give anyone, especially the PDP, the opportunity to plunge this nation into a crises, which is what they earnestly desire. Its imminent defeat is just a few days away.
APC also raised the alarm over the move by the PDP to deploy a technological device to track elections, saying the election umpire should not allow anyone to preempt it in the announcement of election results.
“We wish to re-iterate that it is only INEC that is legally and constitutionally empowered to declare results and it constitutes an offence for anyone to do so. We urge INEC to speak up now and warn the PDP to desist from this ignoble act that is capable of plunging the nation into a crises of immeasurable proportions,” said APC.
- Buhari expresses disappointment over shift in general elections
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday in Daura, Katsina State expressed disappointment over the postponement of the 2019 general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Buhari was in his home state since Thursday for the All Progressives Congress Presidential campaign rally and to vote for the presidential election earlier scheduled for Saturday.
But INEC, in the early hours of Saturday had announced postponement of the elections by another one week due to some challenges.
The President in a statement on Saturday said “I am deeply disappointed that despite the long notice given and our preparations both locally and internationally, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) postponed the Presidential and National Assembly elections within hours of its commencement.
“Many Nigerians have travelled to various locations to exercise their right to vote, and international observers are gathered.
“INEC themselves have given assurances, day after day and almost hour after hour that they are in complete readiness for the elections. We and all our citizens believed them.
“This administration has ensured that we do not interfere in any way with the work of INEC except to ensure that all funds were released to the commission.”
He urged INEC to ensure that materials already distributed are safe and do not get into wrong hands.
He also charged the electoral umpire to do everything to avoid the lapses that resulted in this unfortunate postponement.
- Atiku cautions INEC on safety of election materials
Former Nigeria vice president and presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has cautioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the safety and security of sensitive election materials particularly within the period of the postponment.
Atiku, who spoke with journalists in Yola, Adamawa State, described the postponement as a shocking disaster.
He, however, said he was not discouraged by the postponement of the elections and enjoined Nigerians to exercise patience February 23- date of the election.
He disclosed that the PDP has scheduled an emergency meeting in Abuja to review the situation.
He stated that PDP stakeholders would at the end of the meeting scheduled for Saturday afternoon, device a strategy to combat potential threat against the electoral process and democracy.
Also, chairman of the Adamawa chapter of the PDP, Tahir Shehu, said that the postponement of the elections would not discourage Nigerians from electing Atiku Abubakar as the next President.
Shehu said the postponement has cast a dark shadow in the entire electoral process.
He warned security agencies against taking actions that could worsen the security situation in the country. Shehu said he was confident that Nigerians would defend their votes.
“The security agencies should know that Nigerians are now fully charged against any rigging. We are already having serious security situation in the form of Boko Haram,” Shehu said.
- Minister of communications defends elections shift, says INEC has no sinister motive
The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, says the postponement of the general elections will enable the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to embark on adequate preparations ahead of the rescheduled dates.
The minister said this on Saturday in Saki, Oyo State, while speaking with journalists.
Shittu, who said this was not the first time elections would be postponed, argued that there was no sinister reason behind the postponement
He added that the period would enable his APC to intensify its campaign for all candidates on the platform of the party.
The minister also advised Nigerians to reject politicians who want to buy their votes.
- Deputy Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Musah Abdulwasi,
The Deputy Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Musah Abdulwasi, described the postponement as unfortunate.
He, however, urged INEC to use the one-week period to restrategise and ensure that credible and fair elections were eventually conducted.
Abdulwasi urged his supporters to be calm and law abiding.
- What postponement of election means – Kingsley Moghalu
The Presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YDP) Prof Kingsley Moghalu, has urged Nigerians to remain calm following the postponement of the general elections.
Moghalu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, that INEC’s postponement of the elections signposted the “recycling of failure under the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”
He said the general elections were also postponed in 2015 under the PDP government, and that Nigerians should remain calm and resolute to vote for a new kind of leadership.
Moghalu, who expressed disappointment over the development, described it as burdensome with serious implications.
“School children will now face further disruptions to the school calendar. Economic activities will suffer further setbacks.
“And Nigerians who have travelled to various parts of the country to vote or monitor the elections that would have held today now face logistical nightmares.
“I would like to thank the teeming volunteers of my campaign and supporters of our party, the YPP, for their service to our country. Let us ensure this election is a watershed for the liberation of our country from the vice-like grip of incompetence and lack of vision.
“I remain committed to providing our country the needed visionary and competent leadership,” Moghalu added.
- Dino Melaye reaction to INEC’s postponement of elections
Senator representing Kogi West in the National Assembly, Dino Melaye, has reacted to the postponement of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Reacting, at a press briefing in his native Aiyetoro-Gbede, the Senator described the postponement as part of the grand plan by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
He said: “The postponement is just a confirmation of already designed rigging of the APC.
“We shouted that they were planning to rig the elections; we shouted that the Attorney-General of the Federation (Abubakar Malami, SAN) wrote INEC; we shouted that the National Security Adviser (Babagana Monguno) wrote the President.”
He went further to allege that President Muhammadu Buhari had planned to announce the postponement of the polls himself in a nationwide broadcast on Thursday but was dissuaded from doing so because he lacked the necessary powers.
However, Melaye added: “the postponement of the polls is the postponement of the evil day. Nigerians have decided they are leaving the land of ‘Egypt’ for the ‘promised land.’
- Apologise to Nigerians, foreign stakeholders, LP chieftain tells INEC
A Lawyer and Rights Activist, Dr Kayode Ajulo, has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be penitent and apologise to Nigerians and foreign stakeholders over the elections’ postponement.
Ajulo, a former National Secretary of the Labour Party (LP), gave the advice in Lagos on Saturday:
“The dramatic development that happened to the effect of elections postponement overnight to its conduct by INEC is simply unfortunate as well as embarrassing.
“As adduced by INEC, the reasons presented as alibi for the ill-timed postponement of the Presidential and National Assembly elections being for “logistics” reasons flies in the face of logic and portrays Nigeria as being unserious.
“It is therefore inexcusable for a graphic expression of apology to be delayed any further, lest the commission commits further goofing and burns its goodwill incrementally.
“Beyond apologising, however, earnest efforts must be made to ensure that this manner of almost regular, but needless alterations in our electoral processes is discontinued,” Ajulo said in a statement.
According to him, for elections whose dating has been done for over a year and for which INEC, its handlers, has repeatedly expressed preparedness, the news of re-scheduling is unfortunate.
He described as regrettable, the news of a rescheduled elections from the commission at a time when the nation was about commencing the voting process, when election observers from the various parts of the globe were already at duty posts.
“INEC announced the unfortunate alteration without a word of apology to various stakeholders, particularly Nigerian voters who have journeyed to far distances to perform the all-important civil rights.
“Citizens who have put in risks of various proportions to get to different locations for voting deserve apologies.
“Observers with calculated expenses, candidates whose budgets have been tampered with, innocent corps members who bear huge risks in the interest of the country, all deserve a word of consolation,” Ajulo added.
The LP chieftain said it was unacceptable for INEC, who solely bore the blame for this embarrassing development to have merely announced a rescheduled without apology.
According to him, the rescheduled elections come with such astromical costs and consequences, hence, the need for penitence and sure apologies from INEC.
“INEC, having shifted its timetable, lacks justification to shut out parties/candidates for failure to meet the deadlines for presenting candidates as seen in Rivers, Zamfara and other states.
“Does INEC consider these dear costs? Does it weigh the worth of these costs and thinks of mitigating them? These are queries INEC must act on.”
- INEC was never prepared for 2019 polls – Balarabe Musa
Former Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, on Saturday expressed disappointment over the postponement of the general elections, but declared that Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC was never prepared for the exercise in the first place.
Musa, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Kaduna on Saturday, said he was disappointed, but not surprised, at the development.
“I am not surprised because INEC was never ready for the exercise, given the level of its preparations.
“INEC had serious funding challenges; what was appropriated to the commission by the National Assembly was not adequate and everyone knew it.
Read also: INEC chairman speaks on postponement of polls
“We are not even sure if the approved amount was released to the electoral body by the Federal Government.
“The logistics and operational challenges are glaring. There are also serious security challenges that may affect the agency in the course of the elections.
“The security services are facing the same funding crises and most of them are living in fear.
“You can also see the serious challenges being faced by the Judiciary, who are supposed to play a major role in the election process,” Musa said.
“So, I must say that I am disappointed, but, again, as I said, I am not surprised.
“I hope that all the stakeholders will take the necessary measures to help INEC address the issues before Feb, 23, the new date for the Presidential polls, because the President can only hand over power to an elected person.”
Musa called on Nigerians to remain calm, while waiting for the new dates for the polls. (NAN)
- APGA reacts to postponement of presidential election
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has expressed disappointment over the postponement of the 2019 general elections originally scheduled for Feb. 16 and March 2.
Dr Victor Oye, National Chairman of APGA expressed the disappointment in a statement issued in Awka on Saturday.
Oye said the sudden change in Presidential and National Assembly elections from Feb.16, to Feb, 23 and state Houses of Assembly and Governorship elections moved from March, 2 to March 9, was regrettable.
The national chairman of APGA said the development came with huge cost to the parties which had concluded preparations.
He, however, said APGA was not deterred by the development and expressed the party’s readiness to contest the polls on the new dates.
“We regret the development as we had concluded plans to participate robustly in the election before it was postponed abruptly.
“We are ready any day for the election but for the huge cost already incurred.
“Nevertheless, as a responsible political party, we will abide by the postponement and work toward the new dates,” he said.
Oye said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should discharge its duty with fairness to all Nigerians.
He urged APGA faithful to remain calm and law-abiding and not yield to those who might want to cause trouble.
“It is our expectation that INEC will discharge itself creditably by ensuring that there is free, fair and credible election.
“We urge our teeming members and supporters to remain calm and be on the alert at all times and not allow themselves to be used by anybody to cause confusion or obstruct the smooth conduct of the election,” he said.
- ADC: election postponement irresponsible, scandalous
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has described the postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the day Nigerians had prepared to cast their votes as irresponsible and scandalous.
The National Chairman of the party, Chief Ralphs Nwosu, in a statement Saturday by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Ms. Yemi Kolapo, said that the fact that INEC had, until the morning of elections, assured Nigerians that it was fully prepared for the conduct of free, fair and credible elections despite concerns from credible quarters, made the sudden postponement suspicious.
To this end, Nwosu called for the immediate resignation of both the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and President Muhammadu Buhari, who he said, were the author of the script being presented by the former, noting that the flimsy excuse of logistics issues could not have surfaced on the very day of the elections.
The chairman stated: “Nigerians to reject the sit-tight script of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which he said had unfortunately been unveiled with the most irresponsible and scandalous postponement of the Presidential and National Assembly elections on the day Nigerians had prepared to cast their votes.
“This is a well orchestrated ploy by the APC to rig the elections that they know they will not win, considering Nigerians’ open resentment for the despotic and clueless leadership style of President Muhammadu Buhari and his cohorts, which they have demonstrated at every APC mega rally, even in their strongholds.
“No discerning Nigerian would again trust the perpetrators of this biggest embarrassment in Nigeria’s democratic history to conduct any credible election in Nigeria. The INEC chairman must, therefore, resign immediately and a competent chairman announced with immediate effect. President Buhari must also resign for taking Nigerians for granted and making a mockery of the country’s democracy before Nigerians and the international community.”
Nwosu stressed that one of the strategies of the presidency and APC was to make the opposition parties spend all their resources, mobilising their agents and officials to travel to their duty posts.
According to him: “As at now, inasmuch as I can only speak for our political party, I can say, authoritatively, that billions of naira has been spent by both the party and our candidates on logistics and agents.”
Nwosu noted that Nigerians have never had it this bad, noting that the 2015 postponement by the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration was done two weeks before elections, and when sensitive materials had not been shamefully dispatched as in the case of the present INEC under Buhari.
“How can a responsible government wait till when all these have been done to cancel all arrangements and postpone elections? For wasting both the executive/business time and hard earned resources of the opposition and Nigerians, at large, owing to the ruling government’s desperation to cling to power by all means, both the INEC chair and the President are not expected to stay one more minute in office.”
