The former National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo, on Wednesday, said that President Muhammadu Buhari, has failed on his promise to bequeath free and fair 2023 election to Nigerians.
Nwodo, an ex-Governor of Enugu State, also said that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, equally dashed the hopes of Nigerians when he failed to ensure proper upload of election results to the INEC server.
He said these in an exclusive interview with Vanguard, asking the INEC Chairman to step aside while Nigerians call someone with proven antecedents of integrity and competence to conduct a fresh general elections for Nigerians.
However, he advised political parties which have been allegedly rigged out during the election to proceed to the court and seek redress should the Federal Government refuse to yield to the call for the cancellation of the exercise.
“Nigerians all over are disappointed that inspite of the assurance given by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to bequeath a legacy of free and fair elections, which he also extended to the international community, has been totally flawed.
“Secondly, the chairman of INEC and INEC as an institution built the hopes of Nigerians so high that they were going to deploy technology to make sure that all human errors in management of our elections are removed.
“And the National Assembly in its magnanimity gave us a reviewed Electoral Act that incorporated everything that INEC wanted in order to give us credible elections largely on technological platform.
“These hopes have been rudely dashed to the floor. INEC abandoned the technology, and when it did, it never explained to the country why it did that so that everyone can flow.
“When attention was called to that, the Chairman of INEC dismissed the call with impunity as if what he was doing was right. He went to the National Assembly and promised Nigerians to use technology for these elections.
“It is difficult for anybody to understand the level of impunity with which INEC prosecuted this flouting of the law. Up till now, it has not been able to explain to Nigerians why the law was abandoned, and why it continued as if there was no law.
“When you contest an election and lose, it would be very difficult to take the loss if the exercise was not done according to the law.
“That is the situation we find ourselves in and that is why my party, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, called for the cancellation of the elections.
“Can we do it again and according to the law specified for this exercise? We asked the INEC to stop the collation of results the moment it failed to upload the results to the server as they were coming in.
“That is what the law says. He continued and promised to review the results after collation, what has he reviewed now?
“INEC has lost the integrity to give us elections we can be proud of. How many times and at how many fora did the chairman promise that this law was going to be obeyed to the letter. We cannot continue to trust him to even repeat the elections? He should step aside so that someone the country sees as honourable should repeat the exercise.
“Secondly, with the cacophony of voices from Nigeria and abroad, in the interest of peace and good governance, it is not yet late to cancel the elections so as to do it properly,” he said.
