The All Progressives Congress has said that it will be forced not to participate in future elections, until the Independent National Electoral Commission is restructured.
The Interim National Chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande, said this on Tuesday during the party’s expanded meeting in Abuja.
Akande said that besides carrying out far-reaching restructuring, INEC must also get rid of bad eggs in its midst.
He said, “We will be forced to take a decision not to participate in any future elections until there is a far-reaching restructuring of INEC that will see a purge of the bad eggs in the commission, a re-orientation of the remaining staffers and the compilation of a new and credible voter register.
“The restructuring of INEC and the compilation of a new voter register are the barest minimum requirements for Nigeria’s return to the path of electoral chastity.
“We have no iota of confidence in INEC’s personnel and the commission’s voters’ register, which we believe has been irredeemably tampered with to such an extent that it can no longer be relied upon for any election.”
Akande further said, “While the Anambra debacle, in which INEC apparently acted out a script written by the presidency and the PDP, represents a new low in the country’s unenviable saga of electoral impropriety, it must now signal the death knell for electoral malfeasance and brigandage in Nigeria.”
According to him, the electoral impunity in the country must stop before it is too late.
The APC national chairman said, “We have a presidency that has no qualms about abusing national institutions to achieve a pre-set electoral objective, which is to humiliate a growing opposition party.”
He noted that the Peoples Democratic Party was willing to sacrifice its own candidate in elections just to get at the opposition.
Akande added that the electoral body was packed full of saboteurs and blatantly amoral individuals.
He said that the APC was not caught unawares as it had issued 15 press releases warning rigging in Anambra.
Akande stated, “We exposed the rigging strategies that included mass disenfranchisement, starving of opposition strongholds of electoral materials and the late or none delivery of voting materials and result sheets.”
He warned that if those who rigged the Anambra election got away, they would be emboldened to do the same in Ekiti and Osun states next year.
“The issues at stake go beyond Anambra State. They have the potential to affect the whole of Nigeria, with dangerous consequences for our young democracy,” he said.
Copyright PUNCH.
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