INEC chairman now taking orders from military

The Peoples Democratic Party has said that the Independent Electoral Commission has lost its independence and become an agent of the military and Federal Government at large.
The party said this was what had been playing out in the suspension of electoral process is some state.
In this regard, the PDP warned against an alleged plan by the military and INEC to manipulate the supplementary elections holding on Saturday.
Addressing the media in Abuja on Thursday, PDP’s Spokesman, Kola Ologbodiyan, said, “It is also highly provocative that the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu, is now taking orders from the military to cancel elections and alter results for the APC, instead of asserting the independence and impartiality of INEC under our laws.
“Such annexation of the Prof. Yakubu-led INEC by the Buhari Presidency is the only reason the governorship elections in Bauchi, Plateau, Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa, Benue and Rivers states, which were won by the PDP are declared inconclusive.
“The PDP is also privy to how a Director of one of our security agencies, who was at the meeting, undertook to use his agency to deliver Kano state to the APC.”
Ologbodiyan added that the party had learnt that all the security operatives deployed for the polls had been instructed to work against PDP’s interest.
He said, “In spite of all, the PDP wants the Buhari Presidency and the APC to come to terms with the fact that their conspiracies will be of no avail as our candidates are marching to unassailable victory with the people.
“The PDP reminds our military that Nigerians will not hesitate to treat individuals in military uniform, who illegally involved in the supplementary election, as fake soldiers. After all, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, has declared that uniformed personnel, who helped APC to rig presidential election, were fake.
“It is imperative to state that under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, elections have been turned into warfare against the people but Nigerians will never allow a situation where states are forcefully taken over like spoils of war.
“It is obvious that the elections were stalled in these states just because the PDP was in the lead. If the APC had been in the lead as in Ogun, INEC would not have batted an eyelid before pronouncing the results in favor of APC.
“In all, the PDP wants the APC, INEC and their compromised security officials to be informed that the states, where supplementary elections have been scheduled, are home to the PDP and that our votes can never be stolen.
“The PDP cautions INEC to note that the people already know the number of voters with Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in these states and will never accept any padding of the voter register to favour the APC.”