By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) Presidential Campaign Council has raised the alarm over an alleged plot to pressure the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) into shifting the January 16 presidential election, warning President Bola Tinubu against seeking to evade an electoral verdict.
The council said it had received information that INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan would be summoned to the Presidential Villa and instructed to alter the election timetable, with just 80 days to the poll.
In a statement by its Director of Strategic Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the council urged Tinubu to abandon any such move and called on Amupitan to reject any instruction to change the date and immediately make any such approach public.
“The election date belongs to Nigerians. It must not be rewritten behind closed doors at the Villa,” the council said.
It said Nigerians had endured three and a half years of soaring prices, shrinking incomes and relentless hardship, insisting that they must be allowed to judge the Tinubu administration at the ballot box on January 16.
“A government that has made life this difficult for Nigerians must not be allowed to postpone its day of judgement,” it said.
While acknowledging Ebola as a serious public health concern, the council said health professionals must be allowed to contain the disease, and INEC must take necessary steps to protect voters and election workers.
It cited the position of the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) that there was currently no reason to postpone the election, warning against using the health emergency as a political justification for delay.
The council also put INEC, domestic observers and international election monitors on notice, demanding that any proposal to alter the timetable be made openly, backed by published health evidence and subjected to public scrutiny.
“The Presidency must not use a health emergency to escape an electoral verdict,” it said.
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