A
former Commissioner of Information, Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Ita Awak, has
berated the Peoples Democratic Party for the postponement of the 2015
general elections.
Awak, who spoke with our correspondent
in Uyo on Monday, added that whatever strategy the PDP might adopt, the
All Progressives Congress would be victorious.
He stated that the rationale for
postponing the election was not based on security reports as alleged. He
said it was based on reports by International Election Monitors that
said the APC presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)
would have 70 per cent of the votes while President Goodluck Jonathan
would get only 30 per cent.
He
added that the PDP embarked on election postponement to enable it to
draw a scheme on how to compromise the electoral process.
Awak revealed that some youth groups in
the state had started canvassing for the elimination of the card
readers, saying the technology was not reliable.
“Election postponement is a big blow to
democracy in Nigeria. By this action, Nigerians even hate the PDP the
more. The peaceful election that would have been conducted, Jonathan has
ruined it.
“We are sure of ourselves. We are the
Nigerians’ party; people are by our sides. Whatever strategy the PDP
deploys, the APC will prevail,” he said.
He added that the only remedy for
Jonathan would be to conduct a free and fair election. He noted that by
postponing the election based on whatever strategies, the ruling party
would even lose more votes.
Meanwhile, the Civil Liberties
Organisation, Akwa Ibom State chapter, has condemned the postponement of
the general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The Chairman of the organisation, Mr.
Clifford Thomas, said that the only justifiable reason for postponing
the election could be to enable greater number of voters to participate.
“Assuming you have 45 million registered
voters and only 12 million of them vote, it does not legitimise the
government; government must have legitimacy, power and influence. All
these equal to authority. People must give the government legitimacy to
function.
“You can’t have less than 20 million Nigerians voting and expect to have legitimacy,” he said.
Punch
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