The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, of dishonouring the memory of Chief MKO Abiola, in whose honour Nigerians commemorated June 12, as Democracy Day.
The party said it was distasteful, offensive and unacceptable for the nation to observe Democracy Day under a system that violated, desecrated and despoiled all the tenets of democracy as witnessed in brazen rigging that characterised the 2023 general elections.
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Debo Ologunagba, who noted this in a statement to mark Democracy Day yesterday, said: “The barefaced manipulations of the 2023 general elections by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, amounts to an unpardonable assault and rape of democracy and disregard for the will of the people; the very ills Chief MKO Abiola fought and died for.
“June 12 epitomizes the struggle by Nigerians against corrupt, manipulative and anti-democratic system; against injustice, impunity and electoral fraud which INEC, under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, now represents.
“It is, indeed, heartrending that all the steady progress and gains made by successive PDP administrations in reforming our electoral system have been completely wiped off by INEC in the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
“Our party, however, urges Nigerians not to despair but remain optimistic and law-abiding in their hope for a better nation which they earnestly yearn for.
“The PDP charges leaders at all level across the country to be guided by the essence of June 12 by always adhering to the principles of democracy in the overall interest of Nigerian people.”
