Press Statement
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the conduct and outcome of the
November 16 Kogi and Bayelsa State Governorship election has destroyed
the hope Nigerians had in democratic practice.
Nigerians and the entire world watched in horror as the All Progressives
Congress (APC)-led government trampled our democracy under foot with an
utmost impunity that can only be obtainable in Hitler’s Germany and
Samuel Doe’s Liberia, where the lives and rights of citizens meant
nothing to suppressive power mongers.
Citizens agonized as APC-controlled security forces aided armed hoodlums
to invade polling centers, shoot and kill innocent citizens, cart away
ballot boxes, stuffed them with already thumbprinted ballot papers in
favour of APC, after which results are allocated to the APC and handed
over to a compromised Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
to announce against the will of the people.
It is distressing that under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC
administration, votes no longer count; power and governance no longer
derive from the people but from violence, manipulations and the barrel
of the gun. Nigerians now ask; are we still in a democracy?
With the outcome of the Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections,
Nigerians and the world have lost hope in our institutions of democracy
and security system as presently constituted.
They have completely lost hope in INEC under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, which
has shown itself to be a repressive tool in the hands of dictatorial
forces.
As a party, we condole with the families of our compatriots that were
killed in Kogi and Bayelsa states and prayed that God grant their souls
eternal rest.
The shameful elections conducted in Kogi and Bayelsa states have damaged
the fate of Nigerians in democratic order.
Nevertheless, the PDP remains strong and united in the face of all odds.
Nigeria is our nation and no individual or group can appropriate our
collective sovereignty as a people at all times.
Our party will therefore continue to fully exert itself in upholding the
wishes and aspirations of Nigerians despite the manipulations of the
APC.
The PDP urges Nigerians to remain resilient and focused. Our party will,
in due course, address Nigerians on the way forward in the overall quest
to retrieve stolen mandates, rescue our nation from dictatorial forces
and reinforce democratic practice in our country.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
