Breaking: We condemn INEC’s postponement of Nigeria’s election – APC

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has
condemned the postponement of the
general election by the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC.

INEC had, in the early hours of
today, postponed to February 23rd, the
General election earlier scheduled for
today, Saturday, February 16 , 2019.

INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood
Yakubu,while briefing newsmen at the
commission’s headquarters, announced
that continuing with the election as earlier
scheduled for today, 16th February, 2019,
was no longer feasible.

According to him,“Following a careful
review of the implementation of its
logistics and operational plan, and the
determination to conduct free, fair, and
credible elections, the commission came to
the conclusion that proceeding with the
elections as scheduled is no longer
feasible.”

He therefore announced that the
presidential and National Assembly
elections had been moved to February 23,
2019.

He also said that the governorship and
state assembly elections have also been
moved by one week to March 9, 2019.

However, reacting to the postponement in
a statement on Saturday by the
spokesperson for its Presidential
Campaign Council, Mr Festus Keyamo, the
APC condemned the postponement but
went further to urge its supporters to
remain patient and determined.

The statement reads thus:

WE CONDEMN THE POSTPONEMENT OF THE
ELECTIONS BUT URGE OUR TEEMING
SUPPORTERS TO BE PATIENT AND
DETERMINED.

We have just received with great
disappointment and disillusionment the
announcement by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) of its
decision to postpone the Presidential/
National Assembly and Gubernatorial/
House of Assembly Elections to Saturday,
February 23, 2019, and Saturday, March 9,
2019, respectively.
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 hope that INEC will remain neutral
and impartial in this process as the
rumour 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.
We have earlier raised the alarm that the PDP
is bent on discrediting this process the
moment it realized it cannot make up the
numbers to win this election.
We are only urging INEC not collude with
the PDP on this. We are truly worried
because as early as Friday morning, some
known PDP Social Media influencers
unwittingly announced this
postponement, but quickly deleted the
message and apologized to the public that
it was fake news. 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 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.

Lastly, we wish to draw the attention of
INEC and the world to observe that the PDP
has clearly and openly said it plans to
announce parallel results through some
funny device it has procured or developed

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
crisis of immeasurable proportions.

Thank you.
FESTUS KEYAMO, SAN, FCIARB(UK)
Director, Strategic Communications, APC
Presidential Campaign Council
(Official Spokesperson).