The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday called on INEC to declare its candidate in the November 21 Governorship election in Kogi , Mr . Idris Wada, the winner of the election.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, made the call in a communiqué issued at the end of the party’s National Caucus emergency meeting held in Abuja on Wednesday.
INEC had declared the Nov. 21 election inconclusive following cancellation of the vote 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 rejects INEC’s 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.’’
The PDP said if APC was allowed to substitute its original candidate, 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.’’
The PDP wondered if the electoral commission would not have declared Wada winner of the election if in the middle of the exercise, the APC candidate had said he was no longer interested in contesting the race.
“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“If Audu had withdrawn on Saturday, election would have continued and Wada would have been declared the winner’’.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 the PDP 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 spokesperson 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 the 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 election 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’s decision on the issue.
“They are creating a scenario where a loser in a primary will patiently wait for the winning candidate to finish election and have him either poisoned or assassinated before the final collation of results.’’
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