The opposition party said the election should go ahead on Saturday as originally scheduled, as there was no compelling reason to change the date.
The election was moved by INEC after the police and the State Security Service, SSS, said they could not guarantee security.
The electoral body had initially vowed to go ahead with the polls despite the warning.
A source told PREMIUM TIMES the commission was pressured to change its position.
The PDP said the election date should “remain sacrosanct since there is no tangible reason(s) evident to tamper with the Election”.
It said changing the date “was a less than ingenious attempt to ‘buy time’ for the governing All Progressives Congress, APC”.
“It is shameful and indeed a major constitutional breach for the security agencies to act in concert with the APC to truncate an Election that had been planned for months,” the party said in a statement signed by Dayo Adeyeye, its interim spokesperson.
“Nigerians were not deceived by the obvious concoctions of the security agencies whose performances during elections have been less than average since the advent of the Buhari Administration.”
“The postponement of the Election by INEC is illegal, unconstitutional and a breach of the peoples’ trust in the Commission and the security agencies.
“It is a coup against the people of Edo State in particular and Nigerians in general.
Since APC assumed power, virtually all elections conducted by INEC have either been inconclusive or truncated.
“Saturday’s Election in Edo State must be an exemption. We will not accept anything less than free, fair and transparent election conducted and concluded the same day,” it said.
The party called on INEC to rise to the occasion to restore the confidence of Nigerians in its operations.
It said Edo is a test case and that with the way INEC is performing; “how are we sure that it would be able to handle the 2019 national elections?”
Premium Times
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