The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Iyorchia Ayu on Thursday bemoned that democratic values have declined sharply under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
He made this known while receiving a seven-man delegation of the European Union Election Observer Mission (EU-EOM), led by the Chief Election Observer, Ms. Maria Arena, accused the APC of compromising Nigeria’s democracy,
Describing the PDP as a “party that believes fiercely in democracy and its transparent processes,” Ayu said the PDP was proud that for 16 years, it not only safeguarded Nigeria’s democracy, but it also set-up institutions that deepened and strengthened it.
Ayu lamented that it was regretful that rather than improve on PDP’s legacy, Nigeria’s hard-won democracy was witnessing a steady depreciation under the APC.
According to him, “We are worried that instead of strengthening the democratic process, which will better serve the people, we are seeing a sustained decline in those democratic practices.”
He listed areas of dissatisfaction to include: “The conduct of compromised elections, the use of security agents to attack judges, to attack citizens instead of protecting them, and to subvert the electoral processes.
“We have evidence and we stand by our position. These are not just empty pronouncements.”
He , however, reminded the delegation that its report on the 2019 general elections reflected these drawbacks that the party was complaining about, and insisted that, “we will keep complaining as long these undemocratic practices subsist.
“We believe we won the 2019 presidential elections. We have the evidence. But justice was not done. Now that we are moving towards another election in 2023, it’s very important that we stress the need for the electoral umpire to be genuinely independent as its name implies.”
On the recently held Municipal elections in the FCT, Ayu reiterated that PDP won all the six (6) Area Councils, but was short-changed by awarding it only three chairmanship seats.
He said: “When you look at the results of the councillorships, we won 44 seats against the ruling party’s 18. In the municipal, we won all the councillorships. So, to go to the rural areas and begin to intimidate voters and manipulate the process is something that we are worried about. And if it continues as a trend, it will subvert the electoral process.”
Ayu used the occasion to decry the harassment of party faithful by security agents in the just concluded supplementary election in Imo state, saying the party has written a petition about it to INEC, and if nothing positive comes out of it, the party would seek legal redress.
He appealed to the EU-EOM to take special interest in the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states scheduled for June and July respectively and make its observations available to INEC and other stakeholders with a view to making the 2023 general elections free, fair and credible.
Earlier, the EU-EOM Chief Missioner, Maria Arena, said the delegation was at the PDP national secretariat as part of its follow-up on its earlier visit as well as to identify opportunities and challenges ahead of the 2023 general elections.
