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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the All Progressives Congress-led federal government to alter the newly passed Electoral Act 2022 to introduce clauses that will compromise the 2023 general election.
The PDP said the presidency has perfected plans to use the APC leadership in the National Assembly to orchestrate an amendment to the Electoral Act to create opening for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to alter the already released 2023 Election Timetable and Schedule of Activities to favour the APC in the next year general election.
The PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, on Wednesday, stated this in a statement ,claiming that the PDP has information about how the APC has been mounting pressure on INEC to extend the already scheduled dates for the 2023 general election.
Ologunagba noted that the PDP “vehemently rejects this plot by the APC which amounts to shifting the goal post in the middle of the game and cautions INEC to resist such heinous design against our democracy.”
He added: “The APC, having realized that it is running out of time and cannot meet up with the already released electoral timetable now seeks to frustrate and derail the on-going electoral process.
“The election timetable has already been released, political parties have commenced processes, Nigerians have since set their minds on the election dates to vote out the APC and there is no going back on that resolve.
“The PDP therefore cautions the Buhari Presidency and the APC leadership in the National Assembly to note that any attempt to alter the timetable is an invitation to serious political crisis in the country as Nigerians will firmly resist them.”
The PDP further directed its members in the National Assembly to be “vigilant and firmly resist this plot”, calling on all lovers of democracy, the civil society, the media, organized labour and the international community to stand against the “attempt by the APC to derail the democratic process”.
The party added that it would not hesitate to call its members and Nigerians at large if the “APC continue in this nefarious scheme”.
