The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned in strong terms the decision of the Indepedent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ban the use of smart phones in polling units.
\nThe National Chairman \u00f2f the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, accused INEC of a surreptitious move to prevent the global community from knowing its plan to rig the 2019 general elections.
\nThe Special Adviser to the Governor of Bayelsa State on Media Relations, Mr. FIdelis Soriwei, quoted Secondus as having made the comment during a meeting with stakeholders from Bayelsa East Senatorial District in Yenagoa on Tuesday.
\nSecondus said that it was quite puzzling that the commission would attempt to prevent the use of smart phones, which he described as the easiest means of communication in the society, during elections.
\nHe stressed that the decision to ban the use of smart phones was the strategy of INEC and the APC to rig the 2019 elections.
\nHe argued that the commission by that singular act had sent the country to the dark, primitive era.
\nThe PDP Chairman also restated his opposition of President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s refusal to sign the amended Electoral Act in a bid to avoid the use of card readers.
\nHe said, \u201cWe have all heard what the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, said about the decision to ban the use of smart phones in the polling units. All over the world, a smart phone is the easiest way of communication.
\n\u201cWhat they have said clearly shows that the commission in connivance with the All Progressives Congress have perfected a rigging strategy for the next election.
\n\u201cIn fact, INEC has sent Nigeria back to the primitive days.
\n\u201cThe same plan to rig the 2019 election is responsible for the refusal of the President to sign the amended Electoral Act because the card reader must be used.
\n\u201cOur position is that INEC is wrong, there is no where in the constitution or in the electoral act , where smart phones are banned.
\n\u201cINEC, if you throw this country to crisis, you will be held responsible.\u201d
\nSecondus said that Nigeria was under siege as the Federal Government had introduced an obnoxious suspension of the people’s right to freedom in the country.
\nHe expressed the alarm that more people had been killed in the country in the past one year than those killed in the Nigerian civil war from 1967 to 1970.
\nHe lamented that the APC had introduced dictatorial tendencies that were worse that the repression witnessed under the military.
\nSecondus also accused the Federal Government \u00f2f borrowing N11 trillion in three years in spite of the huge amount of money budgeted yearly to run the government .
\nHe said that the nation\u2019s debt profile had hit the highest of all time under the APC-led Federal Government.
\n\u201cWe have borrowed N11 trillion and you don\u2019t feel the impact of the budget except in Daura.
\n\u201cNigeria has witnessed nepotism, that has never been felt this way in this country.
\n\u201cThe international community is worried about Nigeria. The country is broke, our debt profile has risen to highest level.
\n\u201cNigeria is under siege. Freedom and rights have denied our people. .The country is going through very difficult and trying moments.\u201d
\nIn his remarks, Governor Dickson urged the people of the Niger Delta to give the expected support to Secondus in his efforts to lead the PDP to electoral victory in 2019.
\nHe described the PDP as the party of the Ijaw Nation and indeed the Niger Delta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned in strong terms the decision of the Indepedent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ban the use of smart phones in polling units. The National Chairman \u00f2f the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, accused INEC of a surreptitious move to prevent the global community from knowing its plan to rig […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}