Ahead of the general elections, the All
Progressives Congress, APC, National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, on Wednesday
accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of working with the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Oshiomhole said the electoral umpire was unfair to
the ruling party.
The APC Chairman alleged that the electoral body
believe everything that PDP says, adding that two Resident Electoral
Commissioners are “campaigning line by line” with the PDP in the South South.
Speaking with The Nation, the former Edo State
governor, however, assured that INEC will not be brought down because the APC
believes that state institutions should be allowed to perform their functions.
He said “If anything, this INEC has been very
unfair to the APC. But we just discovered that we have a responsibility. The
fact that we are a governing party imposes on us a certain level of code that
you can’t be seen to rubbish every institution because if we rubbish
everything, it would mean that we don’t want election. INEC believe everything
the PDP says.
“As we speak, there are two Resident Electoral
Commissioners who are virtually campaigning line by line with the PDP in the
south South. INEC, without giving us any explanation and without any concrete
evidence went ahead to say we can’t field candidates in Zamfara, thereby
seeking to award, without any context and nullify democracy in Zamfara state.
“Is that the way your friends behave if they are
your friends. INEC is working more for the PDP, based on evidence I can show.
How can they explain that a court of competent jurisdiction gave orders in
Zamfara to say this candidate is eligible to contest election and another high
court in Abuja also gave a verdict saying APC did not conclude its primaries
but did not give order to INEC.
“There is no order issued by the Federal High
Court in Abuja. The court of Appeal made a pronouncement on this matter today
that there was no order from the court in Abuja, but that there was a concrate
order from a Zamfara High Court which upheld the primaries that was conducted
in Zamfara.
“The INEC Chairman has said that when there are
two court orders, they will adopt the last judgement. In Zamfara state, the
Abuja judgement came first and the Zamfara judgment came last even though it is
the same say.
“More as INEC has said they will always obey the
last judgement when it came to the Zamfara issue, they changed the goal post.
As media, you have to be careful. When you say people alleged there were
meetings and can’t even cite any, it is a disservice. We have been at the receiving
end of abuse.
“There is a candidate in Kano whose nomination we
forwarded to INEC, but they changed the nomination and as we speak, we are in
court over that. We showed our evidence.
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