…Inaugurates 2019 PDP national campaign council
By Dele Ogbodo
The National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, has reiterated his party’s earlier call that the Chairman of the Independent National Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, should resign his appointment.
According to the Chairman, recent elections conducted under Yakubu’s leadership clearly shows that he does not have the will and the courage to exercise effective control of the electoral body, stressing that as a result cronies of the APC in the commission have had a field day in the blatant manipulation of the electoral process.
Secondus, who made the disclosure at the 83rd National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the party which held at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, said intelligence report before the party shows that these agents are bent on manipulating the 2019 general elections.
Sounding warning on manipulation of the coming elections, he added that the consequences of rigging the 2019 general elections may be terrible for our dear country. PDP calls on Nigerians, and the international community to add their voice to this agitation towards ensuring that the ruling party and the INEC conduct a free, fair and transparent elections next year.
He said: “It is equally critical to alert us all on the plan to use the security agencies to rig the upcoming elections just like was done in the recent elections. Associated with this is the agenda to harass PDP leaders in the guise of fighting corruption in order to weaken our resolve to conduct an effective campaign and win the general elections. We will not be intimidated!
“In the face of hunger, starvation and killings, the APC government has continued to strangulate the economy through a “curious” policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to micro-manage the issuance of loans by commercial Banks.”
Charging the DG of the national campaign committee, Dr. Bukola Saraki, he said the task ahead in the next three months is enormous but not insurmountable provided all hands are put on deck.
The only known sure way of winning election, he said is to connect with the voters, get out the votes, and protect the votes by all legitimate means possible.
The state of affairs in the country, according to him, is getting worse by the day as the APC government continues in all ramifications to show that it lacks the wherewithal to manage the country.
“The nation has been in a great mourning mood since last week when troops were brutally murdered in Metele, in Borno State by the Boko Haram sect with exact figure of casualties yet unknown one week after. It was five days after the distressful incident that our President and Commander in Chief of the country’s armed forces reluctantly responded with a statement.
“The incident happened the day our Service Chiefs betrayed their professional calling of neutrality to attend the Presidential campaign declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari.” He said.
The Chairman urged the military to stay apolitical so as to avoid loss of concentration and over indulgence in political matters which often leads to compromise and dereliction of duty, explaining that the politicization of the nation’s military is the latest of the harm the APC administration is doing to country’s security architecture.
He said: “As a party, we stand with our troops in this challenging times and pray that God will comfort the families of our fallen heroes who died in the course of duty.”