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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State says it believes that the sudden shift of the general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the result of external pressure exerted on the electoral umpire to rig the election in favour of President Muhammadu Buhari and the other candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The party in a statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary, Dr. Ifeanyi Osuoza, and made available to banneronlinenews.com, expressed shock at the sudden postponement stated that the reason adduced by the INEC chairman for the polls shift is untenable because the Commission had all the financial resources it needed given to it, and had enough time of four years to plan and put in place adequate logistics and fine tune and sharpen its operational plans for the elections.
” We say this because, all along there had been insinuations and clear pointing of fingers at furtive moves by elements extraneous to INEC bringing pressure on the electoral body to postpone the election, because the cabal in Aso Rock and the Presidency have reasons to believe the situation on ground does not favour President Muhammadu Buhari winning the elections, as a result of the preponderance of the electoral strength weighing heavily against the return of Buhari as President,” Osuoza stated.

Full text of the statement reads:

“PRESS STATEMENT

16th February, 2019

ELECTION POSTPONEMENT IS INFLUENCE OF EXTERNAL PRESSURE ON INEC TO RIG ELECTION, PDP URGES FAITHFUL TO REMAIN RESOLUTE TO VOTE OUT BUHARI, APC
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Delta State Chapter, views with utmost regret, the shocking postponement of the Presidential, Senatorial and House of Representatives elections earlier scheduled for today, February 16th, 2019, and the Governorship, House of Assembly and the Federal Capital Territory elections that should have held on March 2nd, 2019.
According to the announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), postponing the elections, became necessary “following a careful review of the implementation of its logistics and operational plan…”
This postponement is shocking to us first, because of the reasons adduced by the Chairman of the INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu citing logistics and operational challenges. We condemn these by INEC as untenable, since the Commission has been given all the financial resources and has had four good years to plan and put in place adequate logistics and fine-tuning of its operational plans for the elections.
We say this because, all along there had been insinuations and clear pointing of fingers at furtive moves by elements extraneous to INEC bringing pressure on the electoral body to postpone the election, because the cabal in Aso Rock and the Presidency have reasons to believe the situation on ground does not favour President Muhammadu Buhari winning the elections, as a result of the preponderance of the electoral strength weighing heavily against the return of Buhari as President.
Second is that we are shocked by the insensitivity of the electoral body to the implication that it had not worked hard enough at providing sound logistics and operational plans to the stakeholders who have spent huge resources and were set for the elections but are now made to suffer losses by this postponement. We condemn this in very strong terms and warn that INEC must not yield to the pressure of those in the Presidency and the APC to rig Buhari and the APC candidates in, as Nigerians are resolute in their rejection of Buhari as President and the APC administration as the Federal Government.
We urge all PDP leaders, members, and supporters not to despair at this postponement. Rather, we should take it up as a challenge that must be given the required attention and overcome it.
We therefore urge our supporters and members to remain resolute by working to achieve the plan and purpose to ensure that the PDP at all levels win the elections, from the Presidential election of voting in Atiku Abubakar as President, the PDP senators and members of the House of Representatives, to the Governorship by voting massively for Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as our Governor for a second term and all PDP House of Assembly candidates.