The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate for the November 30, 2019, supplementary elections in Kogi West senatorial district, Senator Dino Melaye, may have decided to boycott the vote because the party had lost faith in the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The party’s national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, dropped the hint on Sunday via a press statement saying PDP rejected the supplementary election in its entirety.
The statement said: “After a further review of the November 16 elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) notes that it is now clearer to Nigerians that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) do not want democracy to thrive in Nigeria.
“The PDP and Nigerians, in general, have forcefully rejected the results bandied by INEC in the elections. We also reject the proposed Kogi West Senatorial rerun election, which has already been desecrated by the manipulations in the main election.
“As long as the figures in the main election are fundamentally flawed, the proposed rerun cannot reflect the wishes of the electorate and Nigerians are wondering if it will make any sense to participate in an electoral process that is already deficient.
“Nigerians across the board have completely lost faith in the nation’s electoral process given that the Independent National Electoral Commission under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has been annexed and cannot conduct any free, fair and credible election.
“For us in the PDP and, we believe, to the majority of Nigerians as well, Professor Yakubu is the worst electoral umpire in the political history of our nation.
“Furthermore, the police and the military high commands have been reduced to tools of election brutality to ensure that votes do not count.
“Even the Police high command has openly admitted that the police is incapable of protecting voters and votes; thus validating the reported involvement of security agents in the brutalisation of voters and disruption of the electoral process.
“More distressing is the fact that Nigerians, particularly our members and supporters in Kogi and Bayelsa states, are still in trauma over the murderous November 16 elections.
“A lot of our people have been killed and our members are still grieving.