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Nigerians React To Oshiomhole’s Attack On INEC Chairman Over Election Postponement

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A storm of reactions by Nigerians has greeted the criticism of Prof.Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), by Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s ruling party.

Naija News had reported earlier that the Commission postponed the Presidential and the National Assembly elections by one week earlier today.

INEC also postponed the governorship and state assembly elections, it will now hold on March 9.

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Giving a reason for the decision, Prof. Yakubu said the decision was taken after a careful review of the plan for the exercise.

“Following a careful review of the implementation of its logistics and operational plan and the determination to conduct free, fair and credible elections, the commission came to the conclusion that proceeding with the elections as scheduled is no longer feasible,” he said.

“Consequently, the commission has decided to reschedule the Presidential and National Assembly Elections to Saturday, 23 February 2019.

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“Furthermore, the Governorship, State House of Assembly and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Elections is rescheduled to Saturday 9th March 2019. This will afford the Commission the opportunity to address identified challenges in order to maintain the quality of our elections,” Yakubu said.

Apparently displeased with the development, Oshiomhole who spoke at the International Conference Center (ICC), Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, where INEC held a press conference to explain the reasons for shifting the polls, said the commission ought to have done more.

The APC national chairman described the action of the commission as an embarrassment to the country, demanding that INEC Chairman should tender an apology.

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His words: “Why at 2 am on the day of the election? Why? The problem is not about the postponement but why 2 am on the day of the election? You have explanations to do. If you had told us since we would have planned,” he said.

“Why didn’t you tell us 48 hours ago? You must apologise to Nigerians because you have embarrassed us as a nation,” he added.

Moments after his statement, Nigerians took to the micro-blogging site, Twitter, to praise the APC National Chairman.

Naija News captured some of the reactions below…

https://twitter.com/CuteWalter1/status/1096805753002881024

https://twitter.com/SMahmoud/status/1096792450130165760

https://twitter.com/_Dr90210/status/1096793204186329090

https://twitter.com/Kenechukwu_F/status/1096820935892578306