The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the manifestation of Mr. Frankland Briyia, the erstwhile Cross River state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), as an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Bayelsa state, while still in office, is a direct confirmation that the APC used its members to write figures for President Muhammadu Buhari in the February Presidential election.
The party notes that Mr. Briyia’s governorship ambition on the platform of the APC, which he announced while still in the confines of his office as REC, amply exposed INEC as a partisan electoral umpire under the watch of Professor Yakubu Mahmud.
The PDP states that the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari did not sanction Mr. Briyia, even after he brazenly announced his ambition right in INEC facility, betrays APC’s embedded interests in the commission, which manifested in the manipulation of processes related to the Presidential elections.
The PDP invites Nigerians to note that INEC, in a recent statement, denied receiving any resignation letter from Mr. Briyia at the time he announced his governorship ambition.
Our party therefore calls on President Buhari to come out clean on the real reason he failed to sanction the Cross River REC in line with the law.
The PDP also urges Mr. President to speak out on allegations in the public space that his Presidency failed to sanction Mr. Briyia because of the role he allegedly played in favour of the APC in the Presidential election.
The party however expressed confidence that justice will definitely be served at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal where Nigerians repose hope for the retrieval of the Presidential mandate stolen by the APC.
Insisting that INEC must be sanitized, the PDP calls on the National Assembly to open a public hearing on the issue as a well as effect amendments in the Electoral Act to check the appointment and retention of persons with political leanings as electoral officers as well as recommending stringent sanctions for infringements in that direction.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
