Youths barricade INEC’s office, seek polls’ shift

INEC

PDP, ex-ministers want election postponed by three weeks

Youths in their large numbers yesterday barricaded the state’s headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), demanding the postponement of Saturday’s polls.

The aggrieved youths marched through the streets in Akure, protesting against the exclusion of Eyitayo Jegede as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s candidate.

They carried several placards with different inscriptions.
Some of the placards read: “Don’t create a disorder out of order,” “We say no to interference by the Federal Government in Ondo State’s PDP, using 419 elements,” “We know the conspiracy of INEC, FG, APC to prevent Jegede from contesting.”

Mr. Oluwatuyi Adekanmbi, who spoke on their behalf, said they were at the INEC’s office to stop it from holding the election.

He urged the commission to wait for the judgment of the appeal court on the right candidate for the governorship contest.

According to him, it would amount to a rape of democracy, if the commission allows Jimoh Ibrahim to run as the party’s candidate.

He said: “We are being liberal in the state and that should not be taken as cowardice. We urge the INEC and all the powers that be not to sweep this matter under the carpet.

“We want justice to prevail. The Federal Government should encourage the youths by allowing the law to decide on the party’s right candidate.”

According to them: “This election cannot hold without Jegede’s name as the PDP’s candidate. Ibrahim is not a member of our party and is not our candidate.”

Adekanmbi explained that Jegede fulfilled the PDP’s rules by contesting and winning the primaries, adding that a party’s candidate is not decided through the back door.

“If they refuse to give us the man of the people, this election would not hold on Saturday. We are going to fight the battle with the last drop of our blood,” he said.

The youths threatened not to leave the INEC’s office until Jegede’s was published as the party’s candidate.

However, a joint squad of the state’s Police Command and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) prevented a breakdown of law and order.

Also yesterday, the Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the PDP rose from a meeting, urging the INEC to postpone the election by three weeks.

The party said the postponement would allow the courts to conclude the matters before it and give the participating parties a level-playing field.

The former Minister of Special Duties in the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Tanimu Turaki, said the party was worried about the way the commission handled the state’s governorship candidacy.

Turaki said: “We note with concern the way INEC handled the Edo election. Even though the matter is now in court, a public institution like the INEC that is funded with tax payers money ought not to be partisan in an election matter.”

“We also frown on the allegation that the electoral body was collaborating with other political parties to manipulate the electoral process.”