PDP Allegedly Kicks Against APC Demand For General Election Shift

The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday reject­ed moves by the ruling APC to extend the 2023 general elections by four weeks.

INEC in its timetable had announced that the Presidential and National Assem­bly elections will hold on Saturday, February 25, 2023, followed by the Governorship and State Assembly elections on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

However, credible sources in the APC informed Daily Independent that the move to have the election timetable adjusted is being spear­headed by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State.

Already, 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 governors are seek­ing a declaration that the demonetisation policy of the federation being currently carried out by the CBN un­der the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari is not in compliance with the extant provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Ni­geria 1999 (as amended), Cen­tral Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007 and actual laws on the subject.

They are also asking the court to make a declaration that the three-month notice given by the Federal Govern­ment and the CBN under the directive of the president of the Federal Republic of Nige­ria, the expiration of which will render the old bank notes inadmissible as legal tender, is in gross violation of the pro­visions of section 20(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007 which specifies that rea­sonable notice must be given before such a policy and that the limit cannot be outside that provided under Section 22(1) of the CBN Act 2007.

 

Daily Independent source, who confirmed the plot to ex­tend the general elections, said it may be due to the protests and hardship being witnessed as a result of the naira and fuel scarcity, which has forced some candidates and parties to suspend their campaigns.

Source : Daily Independent.