The All Progressives Congress (APC) has slammed the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) over its 22-hour, no-movement order (from 12 midnight on Friday, Nov. 15th, to 10 pm on Saturday, Nov. 16th) for the Anambra State governorship poll, wondering why such an extended curfew should be imposed because of an isolated election.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the pointed out that during general elections, people were allowed to move around freely from 4 pm on election day.
“Election is not war, but a celebration of democracy. Declaring a 22-hour curfew for an election in only one state raises serious questions: What is INEC hiding? Is the curfew meant to give riggers enough time to write and collate their cooked-up results? Are elections and free movement of people incompatible? Why does INEC need a 22-hour curfew to conduct a ‘peaceful and successful’ election in one state? Where in the world is a 22-hour curfew imposed during an election?
“In any case, Anambra does not have the kind of terrain or riverine communities that will justify waiting for hours for election results to be taken from polling units to the collation centre, hence there is no reason to turn Anambra into a ghost state just to hold a governorship election.
”We therefore call on INEC to reconsider this overstretched curfew if it has no underlying motive for declaring it in the first instance. After all, information at our disposal has it that some decent INEC officials have rejected being part of the Anambra election because they do not want to be tainted by the shenanigans of some of their unscrupulous colleagues who are colluding with do-or-die politicians for ‘thirty pieces of silver’,” it said.
