PFN tasks FG, stakeholders on violence-free election
Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign council for the Edo governorship election, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of plotting to stoke up violence that would compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to suspend the Edo State governorship election till November 2020.
Governor Wike, who made the claim in Port Harcourt, on Monday, claimed the council also had credible intelligence of plans to use security agencies to rig the September 19 election.
The Rivers State governor explained that the APC had concluded plans to capitalise on the assertion of the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, that the Commission would stop the election in the event of violence, by creating an atmosphere for mayhem.
According to the governor, “That was why they went ahead to illegally inaugurate their own speaker of the House of Assembly.
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“They are not interested in the election. All they are interested in is violence, so that INEC will cancel or suspend the election, and then we will wait till November when Governor Godwin Obaseki’s tenure would have ended.
“We know this system. Knowing well that if the election is suspended by September 19, according to them as regards to violence, they cannot do that election again in September.
“October is Ondo election. So, they will give excuse that they are conducting Ondo election. By November, Obaseki’s tenure would have ended. So, you see the calculation,” Governor Wike said.
Similarly, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, the INEC, security agencies and other stakeholders to provide a level-playing ground for all candidates in the Edo State governorship election.
Addressing journalists, in Benin-City, on Monday, President of PFN, Dr. Felix Omobude, lamented the unhealthy political tension in the state amid rising insecurity in the country.
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Edo people, he added, look forward to a peaceful election, urging the president to play a fatherly role.
Said he, “With the Edo election, we call on the Federal Government and its agencies to allow a level-playing ground for all actors in this election.
“Edo people want peace. There has been so much threat and act of violence. We ask the president, as the father of the nation, to intervene and help lower the political tension in the state.”
The PFN president called on President Buhari to tackle insecurity in the land and embark on electoral reforms as part of his anti-graft crusade, pointing out that the nation’s politics had become a mockery before the international community.
