The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has condemned constant accusations by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) had co-opted it into plots to rig the 2019 general election.
The electoral body said that the accusations were capable of eroding public confidence in it, thereby exposing its staff to harm during the polls.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made this known on Friday in reaction to PDP’s claims that INEC, APC and the presidency were trying to create “special polling units” for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Chad and Niger Republic with the sole intent to rig next year’s general elections.
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan made the claim in a Thursday statement.
“I find it distasteful that Mr Kola Ologbondiyan can deliberately embark on peddling complete falsehood about the Independent National Electoral Commission in this manner, with the sole intent of discrediting all the good efforts being put in place to ensure credible 2019 General Elections,” Vanguard quoted Oyekanmi as saying.
“The story about the possibility of so called Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) located in Chad and Niger republic voting in the 2019 general elections was as a result of a misrepresentation of facts by a newspaper in its story on the Validation Conference in respect of the Framework for Voting for Internally Displaced Persons, held on12th December in Abuja, for which the Commission had to promptly issue a rebuttal.
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“Everybody knows that displaced persons living in foreign countries cannot be regarded as IDPs but refugees and there is no provision in our laws for any Nigerian living outside Nigeria to vote during the 2019 general elections.
“But Kola Ologbondiyan has continued to insist that the Commission is planning to establish 30,000 polling units and give the so-called IDPs in foreign countries the opportunity to vote in the general elections.
“What this man is doing, by implication, is to put the lives of INEC permanent and adhoc staff, especially the young National Youth Service Corps members at risk during the 2019 general elections with his continuous portrayal of the Commission as untrustworthy and fraudulent.
“This is not what Nigerians need at this time. This is certainly not the way to be an excellent spokesperson.
“INEC is not a political party. The Commission is not planning to establish any new polling units anywhere. Our only interest is to conduct free, fair and credible general elections in 2019 and we require the cooperation of all stakeholders, including political parties, to achieve this objective.
“My strong advice to Kola Ologbodiyan is that he should stop what I can safely describe as hate speech against INEC, for the good of the country and democracy.”
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