Election periods all over the world does attract a lot of tension between and amongst political parties. It is always that period where you see and hear a lot of allegations and counter allegations from both sides of the divide, all trying to outdo each other.
The Nigerian Political space, is no exception to this trend, as both the ruling party of All Progressives Congress and the major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, have all been trading blames, on political and economic issues they feel they are better positioned to find a solution to. But most importantly, is the issue of voters and Electoral Commission.
The Electoral Commision which in this case, is the Independent National Electoral Commission, has all the powers to determine the outcome of any elections, which is why in the last few weeks, it has been a topic of discussion within the political arena.
The INEC just yesterday, was being accused of having a hidden agenda to rig the upcoming election in favour of the All Progressives Congress, and President Muhammdu Buhari in particular, after the PDP alleged that the commission planned to do this using the underaged registered voters in places such as Kano and Katsina.
In a statement released by the Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Kolo Ologbondinyan said INEC should involve all political parties in their plans to clean up the system with recorded underage voters. The party insisted that failure to do so would mean, there is a hidden agenda to undermine the outcome of the 2019 general elections. The Statement reads:
The admission by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) @inecnigeria of existence of underage voters in its voter register has vindicated the position of the Peoples Democratic Party and clearly shows that we have not been crying wolf where there was none. While we acknowledge this development, we reject moves by the indicted commission @inecnigeria to unilaterally clean up the discredited register and eliminate the minors without involving all stakeholders including political parties in the process.
This is principally because we have been reliably informed that INEC, under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has been instructed by the President and the @OfficialAPCNg to retain the underage voters, particularly in Katsina and Kano states
We are aware that a blood relation of @MBuhari, who has been made in charge of very sensitive department in @inecnigeria, has been perfecting all manner of rigging plans, including the exposed plans to create illegal 30,000 polling units in porous areas in favour of @MBuhari