ABUJA — The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has expressed fears over the ability of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, government to conduct free, fair and credible elections in 2019.
National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, stated this, yesterday, while playing host to a United Nations delegation, which paid him a courtesy visit at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
Addressing the delegation, Secondus said the conduct of elections by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under the stewardship of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has brought fear in the minds of the people that the 2019 polls might not be credible.
“Over the years, we were in power as a party, for 16 years to be precise. We midwifed and deepened democracy. In the last 2015 election, we lost and conceded defeat, without attempting to go to court.
“We realised it was democracy and the will of the people. But we have fears today that since APC came to power, all the elections we have conducted came with huge question marks.”
“As a matter of fact, this (INEC) is the only electoral body that has conducted elections several times and they (government) will call for a re-run when it is not in their favour,” he noted, asking the delegation to “Look seriously in the area of free and fair elections that guarantee security.
On his part, leader of the UN delegation, Serge Kubwimana, said the team was in the country on a need assessment mission.
According to him, the team will take input from political institutions in Nigeria to determine the thematic areas of possible assistance to INEC as the 2019 elections draw closer.
