Communique 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;
INEC Chairman, Yakubu
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.
Metuh
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
National Publicity Secretary
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