The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have drawn the battle line as it has expressed its determination to make the tenure of the new acting chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Amina Zakari, an arduous one.
The party, speaking through its National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, disclosed on Thursday that it would not accept Zakari and as such vowed to reject any election conducted under her watch.
Metuh, speaking during a visit to the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and the International Republican Institute (IRI) in Abuja, complained that the INEC chief is “a daughter” to Buhari, and as such would not be fair in the discharge of her responsibility as the nation’s electoral umpire.
“We have INEC, and the idea is that people heading it should be above board, but the present ruling party has appointed the daughter of the President to head the position. There is nowhere in the world where such has happened, a person who has a relationship with the President.
“I am drawing the attention of the IRI to this anomaly. Buhari has appointed his daughter as INEC chief, we believe there will not be fairness.
“It will be very difficult to accept result of any election conducted by Amina Zakari. It will be difficult for PDP to accept results of elections if we lose under Zakari,” he said.
Metuh also faulted Buhari’s style of leadership, stating that he’d deliberately sidelined the governors of the opposition on
national issues.
Also, he maintained that under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, governors from the opposition parties were picked to travel with government team.
He brought up the issue of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who he said was elected by his colleagues at the National Assembly, but who the Presidency was using the security apparatus to intimidate.
“I want to alert the international community on these issues and if they are not handled very well, could truncate our democracy. We have witnessed a remarkable change in the past few days.
“We encourage freedom and in just two months in power, we have witnessed organised witch hunt by the leadership of the APC in trying to muscle our people,” he complained.
