PDP seeks foreign sanctions against INEC, police over Kogi, Bayelsa polls

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has requested the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) to impose sanctions on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) for allegedly abusing their offices during the last weekend’s governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states.

The party’s National Chairman, Uche Secondus, at a press conference yesterday in Abuja, described the roles of the duo as “unfortunate.”

He said: “The PDP therefore calls on the international community as well as international organisations, including the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the Commonwealth of Nations, the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to immediately impose sanctions, including travel bans on the INEC and the police high command for abusing their offices and allegedly aiding or allowing acts that led to electoral fraud and violence in the elections.”

The party called for “outright cancellation of the governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states”, pointing out that they were “products of bloodshed and do not reflect the true wishes and aspirations of the people.”

Secondus added: “We also demand the immediate cancellation of the Kogi West senatorial election. This is the biggest fraud of the century.”

According to him, “the PDP, standing with millions of Nigerians, also holds that INEC and the police high command must be made to answer charges of electoral fraud and crime against humanity at the appropriate quarters.”

The PDP described as most distressing “the gruesome incineration of one of our party’s woman leaders in Kogi State, Mrs. Acheju Abuh, in her home by thugs.”

The chairman went on: “Our party holds that these electoral frauds and crime against humanity, including established culpable homicide, cannot be allowed to pass.”

He disclosed that the “leadership of the PDP has thoroughly reviewed incontrovertible pieces of documentary evidence, including video clips, graphics, witness testimonies, manipulated result sheets, proofs of compromising of INEC officials and other hard facts as well as the unforgiveable culpable homicide and crime against humanity in the elections.”

The party drew the attention of Nigerians and the international community to “the fact that since the election, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Federal Government has failed to take any concrete steps to investigate the issues and bring the culprits to book.”