Press Statement
…To Fly Flags At Half Mast
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 board have completely lost faith in the nation’s
electoral process given that 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 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 brutalization of voters and
disruption of 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.
It is public knowledge that all accredited local and international
observers, including the Civil Society Situation Room, have declared
that the elections did not meet the minimum standard for credible
election and have unanimously called for outright cancelation.
There is indeed nothing to indicate that more people will not be
massacred in the proposed Kogi West Senatorial re-run election. It is
therefore doubtful if Nigerians will be prepared to participate in that
re-run given their sordid experiences in the last election.
There is already a growing consensus across the nation that
participating in elections by INEC as presently constituted under the
Buhari Presidency would amount to helping to legitimize illegitimacies
and outright criminalities.
Indeed, Nigerians are not ready to join in whitewashing INEC’s battered
image as such would also amount to putting a lipstick on a pig.
Moreover, there are reports in the public space that the APC-controlled
Federal Government does not want Senator Dino Malaye in the Senate just
because of his forthrightness in defending the interest of the people.
Nigerians recall with shock how, at the presentation of the 2020 budget,
Mr. President reportedly asked Senator Malaye “you, you mean you are
still in this chamber?”. A question which meaning cannot be farfetched.
Our party has been made aware of how INEC and security apparatus have
been instructed to use all means to stop Senator Dino from returning to
the Senate. INEC had also blatantly refused to consider Senator Melaye’s
petitions regarding the November 16 election.
Nevertheless, the PDP remains strong and undeterred. Our party is aware
of that fact that millions of Nigerians look unto our platform for
strength and direction in their quest for freedom and preservation of
their rights. For this, we will remain resilient till the end.
This country belongs to all of us and nobody, no matter how highly
placed, has the right to appropriate our common sovereignty for his or
her anti-people purpose.
However, as we forge on in this collective struggle, the PDP directs all
flags at our national, state and local government secretariats to fly at
half mast from Monday, November 16th to Wednesday, November 17th in
honour of all those killed in Bayelsa and Kogi states by the APC and
their thuggish collaborators.
Their death will never be in vain
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
