Press Statement
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the manifestation of Mr.
Frankland Briyia, the erstwhile Cross River state Resident Electoral
Commissioner (REC), as an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship
aspirant in Bayelsa state, while still in office, is a direct
confirmation that the APC used its members to write figures for
President Muhammadu Buhari in the February Presidential election.
The party notes that Mr. Briyia’s governorship ambition on the platform
of the APC, which he announced while still in the confines of his office
as REC, amply exposed INEC as a partisan electoral umpire under the
watch of Professor Yakubu Mahmud.
The PDP states that the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari did not
sanction Mr. Briyia, even after he brazenly announced his ambition right
in INEC facility, betrays APC’s embedded interests in the commission,
which manifested in the manipulation of processes related to the
Presidential elections.
The PDP invites Nigerians to note that INEC, in a recent statement,
denied receiving any resignation letter from Mr. Briyia at the time he
announced his governorship ambition.
Our party therefore calls on President Buhari to come out clean on the
real reason he failed to sanction the Cross River REC in line with the
law.
The PDP also urges Mr. President to speak out on allegations in the
public space that his Presidency failed to sanction Mr. Briyia because
of the role he allegedly played in favour of the APC in the Presidential
election.
The party however expressed confidence that justice will definitely be
served at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal where Nigerians
repose hope for the retrieval of the Presidential mandate stolen by the
APC.
Insisting that INEC must be sanitized, the PDP calls on the National
Assembly to open a public hearing on the issue as a well as effect
amendments in the Electoral Act to check the appointment and retention
of persons with political leanings as electoral officers as well as
recommending stringent sanctions for infringements in that direction.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
