decision to delay the general elections.
Speaking at the All Progressives Congress (APC) emergency caucus meeting
at the party secretariat, President Buhari said:
‘‘Definitely, the reasons such incompetence manifested have to be
explained to the nation. After the elections, we have to know exactly
what happened and who is responsible.
‘‘The constitution and the laws protect INEC but they must not take us for
granted. If for example, the National Assembly refused to approve what
INEC wanted, then INEC would have more than enough reasons why they
couldn’t perform.
‘‘If the time for the constitutional elections, four years after was not
obeyed by the government and the system, INEC will have a case. But we do
not understand why this inefficiency and we have to move into details
after the election to find out who’s responsible.’’
Noting that the electoral commission had all the time and resources it
needed to conduct the polls, the President said there was no justification
‘‘to wait for only six hours to postpone the votes’’, in the early hours
of February 16.
The President also used the occasion to warn all political actors to
ensure an environment free from intimidation and violence for all eligible
citizens to peacefully cast their ballot on the Election Day.
The President announced that he has directed security agencies to contain
any acts of lawlessness before, during and after the elections.
‘‘We are not going to be blamed of trying to rig the elections. I want
Nigerians to be respected. Let them vote whoever they want across the
parties. I am not afraid, I have gone to all 36 states and Abuja and I
think I have enough support across the country,’’ he said.
President Buhari urged all APC supporters to vote peacefully in the
upcoming elections.
‘‘We have so much to do and I think we should again go back to our loyal,
committed people in all constituencies. If anything happens we have nobody
to blame.
‘‘We have to tell our constituencies that they have to be patient and act
in a very responsible way by going peacefully to vote again, and they
should depend on party representatives at each of the 176,000 polling
units,’’ he said.