Atiku’s Camp Reacts As APC Reportedly Plot Election Postponement

The camp of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has kicked against an alleged move by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to have the upcoming presidential election postponed by four weeks.

The Publisher Nigeria reports that the Independent National Elec­toral Commission (INEC) had announced that the Presidential and National Assem­bly elections would hold on Saturday, February 25, 2023, while the Governorship and State Assembly elections are set to hold on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

But sources have reportedly told Daily Independent that Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State is allegedly leading a plot to adjust the election timetable.

Recall that El-Rufai and two other APC governors, Yahaya Bello (Kogi) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara), dragged the Federal Government before the Supreme Court over the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has the blessings of President Mu­hammadu Buhari.

The source disclosed that the move by the APC and El-Rufai may be due to the protests and hardship across Nigeria due to the naira and fuel scarcity, which has forced some candidates and parties to suspend their campaigns.

“The APC is seeking a post­ponement of the election by four weeks, and the move is led by Governor Nasir El-Rufai. I think it has to do with the current chaos being experi­enced as a result of the naira and fuel scarcity,” the source said.

Speaking on Tuesday on the alleged plot to postpone the election, a spokesperson of the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation, Daniel Bwala, said anyone thinking of delaying the election doesn’t mean well for Nigeria.

He stated that those pushing to reschedule the election have no­ticed that the naira redesign policy has put them in a tight corner, and they need to buy time to wriggle their way through.

Bwala said: “All those who are thinking of postponing the election never mean well for Nigeria, and they never mean well for our democracy. They have no­ticed that the naira redesign policy has put them in a tight corner, and they needed to buy time to wriggle their way through. They went to court to challenge the policy, and the 10 days extension given by the president is coming to an end.

“When they went to court, the ten days granted to them before the hearing of that case would have been over. With that, their matter will become academic. So, they are now seeking to extend the election by four weeks so that within this period, they will go and get ‘black market’ order from anywhere that will now say that their case is sus­pended.”

Bwala wondered why the ruling APC is afraid of going to the polls now when other political parties, including INEC, said that they are ready for the exercise.

He claimed that it is only the APC that is fighting for an extension of the naira policy because, allegedly, they have stashed a large amount of the old naira notes they want to use for vote buying

The PDP chieftain said: “If you look at it from all points of view, you will notice that anybody that is seeking postponement of the election at this critical time of our na­tional existence doesn’t mean well for our nation. INEC said they are ready for the election, the Federal Government said they are ready, political par­ties also said they are ready, but only one political party keeps saying they are not ready and are demanding for postponement.

“That party happens to be the governing party that should be the first to be ready for the elections. Also, it is only that political party that is fighting for an extension of the naira policy because allegedly, they have stashed a large amount of the old naira notes and they want to use it for vote buying. However, this policy will not permit them to do that. They are suffering from anthropophobia which is the fear of the people and society. APC is afraid of voter backlash that the people are going to vote them out”.