Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has charged the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) to set up a committee to review the outcome of the 2019 general elections and recommend to the party necessary reforms.
Atiku stated this at an emergency National Executive Committee( NEC) meeting of the PDP, yesterday, in Abuja.
This is coming as 12 governors elected on the platform of the opposition party were conspicuously absent at the crucial NEC meeting convened by the leadership of the party in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment that sacked Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo State.
Though there are currently 15 governors elected on the platform of the PDP, only the Governors Aminu Tambuwal , Ahmed Fintiri and Bello Mutawalle of Sokoto, Adamawa and Zamfara states, as well as Ihedioha, attended the meeting.
Atiku charged the leaders of the party not to take what is happening in the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC), police and the judiciary, especially as it concerns elections in the country for granted.
The former Vice President noted that it has become imperative for the opposition party to mobilise Nigerians to resist alleged threat to democracy, unity and development of the country by the ruling All Progressives Congress ( APC).
He noted that PDP administration governed the country well from 1999 to 2015 and handed over to the APC, with hopes that they will entrench democracy in the country.
According to him, “Our government governed very well from 1999 up to 2015. As true democrats, we conceded power to the opposition hoping it will further entrench our democracy development and unity but alas Nigerians have been proved wrong by the governing APC.
“It is has become necessary for us to mobilise Nigerians to resist the threat to our democracy, unity and development. Therefore, I will like to propose a strong committee to review the last elections and recommend to the party needed reforms to address the challenges “But what cannot wait is that we should not take what has been happening in our democratic processes from the role of INEC, role of security agencies and the judiciary for granted. If we take all these roles for granted that will be the end of our hard earned freedom and the struggle of our founding members who are today not alive.
“What can we say we have done to their struggles as they lay in their graves. Therefore, as long as we are alive it is our responsibility to reincarnate the struggle they led that brought about the democracy today that the APC government is threatening.”
Addressing journalists at the end of the meeting, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the opposition party will deploy all constitutional means including civil disobedience to compel the government to respect the rule of law.
Ologbondiyan said the opposition party will insist that the government desist from allegedly influencing the judiciary, the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) and security agencies in the country.
He noted that the opposition party will not allow the judiciary, legislature, security agencies and other institutions of government become departments of the APC.
