The opposition Peoples Democratic Party has described the declaration by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, that there are no underage voters in Kano State as despicable and an act of cowardice that threatens Nigeria’s democracy.
In a statement signed by the National Publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP said that INEC Chairman is allowing the All Progressive congress (APC)-led Federal Government to push him to make such false declaration, despite manifest documentary evidence in the public domain and even by INEC officials.
The party said that the actions of the INEC Chairman cast a huge doubt on the sincerity of the commission to conduct free, fair and credible elections come 2019.
It said: “INEC has obliterated a huge part of its honour by denying what is obvious to all instead of taking urgent steps to clean up the register and correct all anomalies ahead of 2019 general elections.
“When Professor Yakubu set up his committee of handpicked officials, instead of deploying stakeholders comprising of political parties and credible NGOs, the PDP immediately alerted of a grand design to use the panel to arrive at a predetermined finding and cover the illegality for the APC. Today, we have been vindicated.
“We invite Nigerians and the international community to note the sequence of plots by INEC and the APC to hide the existence of underage voters in Kano and Katsina States.
“Nigeria will recall that when the issue first came to the fore, the APC mounted a staunch and unyielding defence for INEC, thus betraying their vested interests in the illegality”
The PDP maintained that the APC is only setting up INEC against Nigerians and cautioned the Chairman not to allow himself to be used to throw the nation into chaos.
