16th March, 2016
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has decried the postponement of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Area Council election from March 19 to April 9.
This was contained in a statement issued by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh on Wednesday in Abuja.
It stated that there was no valid reason for the shift, except that the PDP and its candidates were more popular and set to sweep the polls.
Metuh, however, said that PDP members and supporters “are fully mobilised and ready for the elections. It is obvious that we are winning; the people are with us.”
He also said that PDP would not accept anything short of free, fair and credible elections.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, had reiterated that the election was postponed due to short fall in the number of ad-hoc staff required to conduct the FCT election.
Mahmood stated this during a joint news conference he held with the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase on preparation for Rivers rerun election.
“FCT INEC required 9,000 ad-hoc staff to conduct the election, but was able to recruit 3,532 from the NYSC, leaving a shortfall of over 6,000.
“We took a step to engage students from University of Abuja, but were able to recruit about 2,000 people,” Mahmood said.
He said that the commission postponed the election as it was not sure of recruiting the remaining ad-hoc personnel required for the conduct of the election.
“Even if we are able to recruit the shortfall, we need enough time to train them before the election day,” he added.