Nigerians have expressed their frustrations at the last minute postponement of the Presidential election scheduled for Saturday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The postponement was announced by INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu around 3am Saturday, amidst reports of logistics problems faced by the commission.
According to INEC, the Presidential and House of Assembly polls have now been shifted to next Saturday. While the Governorship and state assembly elections will take place on 9 March, instead of 2 March as initially scheduled.
It was to the consternation of Nigerians as everyone, except INEC had put in place different arrangements for the elections and were ready. some travelled far distances hoping to cast their ballot. Many had even gone ahead to shift various events scheduled for today to next week. Those hopes have now been dashed and many will rue the decision for days.
Some reactions on twitter:
https://twitter.com/abdool_moh/status/1096644780979904512?s=19
https://twitter.com/MrAbuSidiq/status/1096639592357396481?s=19
https://twitter.com/AMADICHIMA/status/1096517253544267781?s=19
However, reacting to the postponement in a statement through the spokesperson of President Muhammadu Buhari Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Festus Keyamo, the APC condemned the postponement but went further to urge its supporters to remain patient and determined.
“We have just received with great disappointment and disillusionment the announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of its decision to postpone the Presidential/National Assembly and Gubernatorial/House of Assembly Elections to Saturday, February 23, 2019, and Saturday, March 9, 2019, respectively.
“We condemn and deprecate this tardiness of the electoral umpire in the strongest terms possible.
“President Muhammadu Buhari had since cooperated fully with INEC by ensuring EVERYTHING it demanded to conduct free and fair elections were promptly made available to it.
“This news is, therefore, a huge disappointment to us and to our teeming supporters nationwide and around the world, many of whom have come into the country to exercise their franchise.
“Now, it may be up to its old trick again. We have earlier raised the alarm that the PDP is bent on discrediting this process the moment it realized it cannot make up the numbers to win this election.
“We are only urging INEC not collude with the PDP on this. We are truly worried because as early as Friday morning, some known PDP Social Media influencers unwittingly announced this postponement, but quickly deleted the message and apologized to the public that it was fake news. We do not want to be forced to a situation of announcing our total loss of confidence in INEC, because we know where that would leave our democracy.”
