Mr Festus Keyamo, Director Strategic Communications of the council, in a statement on Saturday in Abuja, said the directorate received with great disappointment and disillusionment the announcement of postponement of the election by INECs Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
He alleged that the commission maybe be working with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to arrive at the decision.
We condem and deprecate this tardiness of the electoral umpire in strongest terms possible.
President Muhammadu Buhari had cooperated fully with INEC by ensuring everything it demanded to conduct free and fair elections were promptly made available to it.
This news is therefore a huge disappointment to us and to our teeming supporters nationwide and around the world, many of whom have come into the country to exercise their franchise.
We do hope that INEC will remain neutral and impartial in this process.
We have earlier raised alarm that the PDP is bent on discrediting this process the moment it realised it cannot make up the numbers to win this election. We are only urging INEC not to collude with the PDP on this.
We are truly worried because as early as Friday morning, some known PDP social media influencers unwittingly announced this postponement, but quickly deleted the message and apologised to the public that it was fake news.
We do not want to be forced to a situation of announcing our total loss of confidence in INEC, because we know where that would leave our democracy, he said.
Keyamo appealed to Nigerians and APC supporters to be patient, calm and resolute despite the postponement of the election, which he said was temporary setback.
He urged Nigerians not to give anyone the opportunity to plunge the nation into crises.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that INEC Chairman, after a meeting with the commissions Commissioners announced the postponement of the Presidential and National Assembly and Governorship and House of Assembly elections to Feb. 23, and March 9, respectively.
