Read the communique below;
Communiqué Issued At The End Of The Emergency
National Caucus Meeting Of The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Held On
Wednesday, November 25, 2015.
The National Caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) met on Wednesday, November 25, 2015 in Abuja wherein it thoroughly
considered the developments arising from the conduct of the inconclusive
governorship election in Kogi state and resolved as follows;
1. Completely rejects the decision of INEC in
yielding to the unlawful prompting of a clearly partisan Attorney General of
the Federation (AGF), Mallam Abubakar Malami, to allow APC to substitute a
candidate in the middle of an election, even when such has no place in the Constitution
and the Electoral Act.
2. Insists that with the death of its candidate,
Prince Abubakar Audu, the APC has legally crashed out of the governorship race
as no known law or constitutional provision allows the substituting of
candidates, once the ballot process has commenced.
3. Insists that with the unfortunate death of
Prince Abubakar Audu, the APC has no valid candidate in the election, leaving
INEC with no other lawful option than to declare the PDP candidate, Capt. Idris
Wada as the winner of the election.
4. Notes that the combine reading of the provisions
of the constitution and Electoral Act does not in any war whatsoever support
the substitution of candidates for election in the middle of the ballot
process.
5. Notes that if APC is allowed to substitute its
original candidate, then the party would have fielded two separate candidates
in the same election, a scenario that is completely alien to our electoral laws
and to any known democratic norms and practice world-over.
6. Caucus observes that the APC, fully aware that
it has no case before the law is now orchestrating confusion in the polity with
a view to diverting attention from its glaring incompetence and failure of
governance.
7. Observes that the leadership of INEC as
presently constituted under the Chairmanship of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has
demonstrated that it is incapable of neutrality and as such cannot be vested
with the conduct of the Kogi governorship supplementary election as well as the
December 5, 2015 Bayelsa governorship election.
8. As a result, caucus demands the immediate
resignation of the chairman and all national commissioners of INEC to pave the
way for a new non-partisan commission to conduct the forth-coming elections.
9. Caucus also demands the immediate resignation of
the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mallam Abubakar Malami for
deliberately misleading INEC into arriving at the unconstitutional decision of
allowing APC to substitute its candidate in the inconclusive election.
10. Notes that in order to save the nation’s
democracy from imminent collapse, the PDP as a critical stakeholder will
immediately challenge this unlawful and unconstitutional decision by INEC in
the court.
11. Caucus also alerts that the AGF, INEC and APC
are creating a scenario where a loser in a primary will patiently wait for the
winning candidate to finish election and then have him either poisoned or
assassinated before the final collation of results.
12. Caucus calls on the international community to
prevail on the APC government to stop this ceaseless assault on our democracy.
Signed:
Chief Olisa Metuh
National Publicity Secretary
Chief Olisa Metuh
National Publicity Secretary
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