Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Prince Uche Secondus has called on the United States of America to mount pressure on Nigeria to carry out electoral reforms before the next general election.
Secondus made the call when a delegation of IRI led by its Country Director, Mrs. Angela Nwambugu, visited the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
“You need to speak to your country and other countries to mount pressure for Nigeria to amend her electoral laws so that any one that will vote will make sure that his or her vote will be counted and not manipulation of figures”.
According to the PDP National Chairman, “security agencies should be barred from directly participating in election, stressing that in Kogi State that helicopters by police came and dispersed people who came to vote. INEC and APC denied the people who came to vote and cooked up figures. We are setting up a review and assessment committee review as a post mortem of what happened in 2019”
He noted that if this could happen during re-run elections, then imagine what will happen in 2023, adding, “if you cannot be guaranteed that you can go and vote and come back safely, what will it be by 2023 when people will come and to vote?
“So, we want all those pressures to be mounted on the President to sign all the enabling laws that would guarantee the right to vote and the security officials be kept away from the electoral process like any other countries like in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa. I have never seen military men participate in election”.
“If people did not have the right to vote, what was the essence of election? People must come out of their houses to register and vote. They must have the right to go out there to vote and then be safe”.
In her speech, said they were in Nigeria to assist in deepening of the country’s democracy and bridging the gap between government and the people.
“Our work here simply to support your processes, your governance across the country and consolidating on democracy,” she said.
Nwambugu said that though the institute was not presently working at the national level, it was working at the state level.
“We have programmes in Ebonyi, Adamawa, Bauchi and Sokoto states and we have worked with your leaders down at the grassroots.”
