TRACKING >>Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has declared that chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, was under pressure from the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government to postpone the 2019 general elections, for fear of defeat.
This is as a good governance advocacy group, the Rivers Unity House (RUH), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack and subsequently arrest the INEC chairman, Yakubu for treason following the postponement of the 2019 general elections by one week.
Wike, in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt yesterday, urged Nigerians to disregard the reasons given by the INEC Chairman for postponing the elections, pointing out that the leadership of APC in the country was afraid of losing the presidential election.
The governor said: “Contrary to the excuses being fed to the public, we heard on good authority that the chairman of INEC was unduly pressured by the APC-led federal government to postpone the general elections.
“Sensing correctly that it was going to lose the general elections if held on the 16th of February 2019, the APC-led federal government ordered INEC to set in motion the process to stagger the general elections by withholding elections in Rivers and other strategic States like Akwa Ibom, Lagos and Kwara States to some other dates.
“The resistance by the chairman of INEC and the international observers to that evil directive and the ensuing confusion affectively clogged INEC’s preparations, especially in the timely distribution of election materials to local government areas across the country.
“For instance, here in Rivers State, the APC-led federal government deliberately refused to allow the election materials already in the custody of the Central Bank to be distributed to any of the 23 local government areas on the bland excuse that some misguided APC members were demonstrating at the state’s INEC office.
“It is relevant to mention that there was no rational connection between the demonstrations by the APC hired thugs and the overarching national interest to deploy election materials to the local government areas in preparation for the Saturday elections.”
Meanwhile, a good governance advocacy group, the Rivers Unity House (RUH) has said there is the need for the federal government to arrest and try the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu and any other officials of the commission linked to the postponement for treason.any other officials of the commission linked to the postponement for treason.
RUH Convener, Kingsley Wenenda Wali, in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, described the postponement of the general elections as “national embarrassment of monumental order.”
Wali said: “I truly don’t want to characterize this postponement within the context of how it benefits any political party or government. The truth is that this a national embarrassment of monumental order.
“This is the equivalent of treason in a democratic process. And I will simply call on the government to arrest and put to trial, the Chairman of INEC and any other person, persons or group of persons, directly or indirectly connected to this act of treason”.
