The Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday said the Independent National Electoral Commission has allegedly become the most debased, degraded and corrupt institution in the country.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement also berated the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, for claiming that INEC was the most improved service institution in the country.
He said, “It is indeed outrageous that while Nigerians are hurting over the subversion of their mandate, the INEC Chairman, who ought to be apologizing is rather insulting their sensibilities with his provocative claims.
“Yakubu cannot claim that INEC under his watch is the most improved service institution when all indices show that it performed far below the bar in the 2019 elections. How can anyone in good conscience make such spurious claims when the massive irregularities that defaced the 2019 elections is responsible for the unprecedented 766 election petitions across the country as against
297 petitions filed in the 2015 elections?
“It is indeed an unpardonable affront on the sensibility of Nigerians for Yakubu to claim that this INEC that has become notorious for compromised voters’ register, missing ballot papers, alteration of results and inconclusive elections, is the most improved service institution in the country.”
According to him, it was preposterous for Yakubu to claim that INEC is the only agency with offices in all Local Government Areas and whose staff work exceptionally hard when there are many more agencies with offices in all the LGAs that engage in very tedious national assignments, even with far less allocation than INEC.
Ologbondiyan said, “What would the INEC Chairman say about an agency like the National Youth Service Corps, which has offices in all the LGAs and yearly mobilizes thousands of corps members across the country yet without incidences of inconclusive mobilization or missing service materials?”
The PDP spokesman further said that if INEC was the most improved institution and had nothing to hide as Yakubu claimed, why is it afraid to allow an inspection or judicial audit of the sensitive materials and devices it used in the 2019 general elections, including its server?”
Culled from Punch
