Fear of defeat: PDP pull out of Kogi West rerun election »

In a desperate move to save face and avoid defeat on the field, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Saturday, hinted that it would not participate in the Kogi West senatorial district rerun election scheduled for November 30th.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbodinya gave the hint in a statement made available to newsmen.

Kola said that the party had lost confidence in the ability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to conduct a free, fair and transparent elections.

The statement reads in parts:
“Our party has been made aware of how INEC and security apparatus have been instructed to use all means to stop Senator Dino from returning to the Senate. INEC had also blatantly refused to consider Senator Melaye’s petitions regarding the November 16 election.

“As long as the figures in the main election are fundamentally flawed, the proposed rerun cannot reflect the wishes of the electorate and Nigerians are wondering if it will make any sense to participate in an electoral process that is already deficient.”

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the Kogi West senatorial district election inconclusive and ordered a rerun in 53 Polling Units with 46,127 registered voters.

Currently, Smart Adeyemi, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress is in the lead with 80,118 votes, while Dino Melaye of the PDP trails behind with 59,548 votes.

Pondits have argued that the PDP’s decision to pull out of the rerun was in the realization that it cannot muscle enough votes to defeat the APC candidate who is already leading with 20, 570 vote margin.

They said video evidence showed former senator Dino Melaye commending the process while addressing press after casting his vote at his polling unit in Aiyetoro, only to condemn same when election didn’t eventually go his way.

They went further to advice parties that the trend of condemning process when it does not favour premeditated interest was not the best for our democracy.