PDP implores INEC to exercise neutrality in upcoming Edo Election

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State on Sunday, September 6, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agents to fairly carry out their statutory responsibilities during the September 19 governorship election in the state.

This was contained in a statement issued by the PDP chairman in the state, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, who made the call during the weekly media briefing to appraise the party’s campaign activities ahead of the election.

Aziegbemi said that from the just concluded ward-to-ward campaign across the 192 wards in the state, Edo people had clearly shown their preference for Governor Godwin Obaseki.

According to him, multiple opinion polls conducted by independent bodies and organisations revealed that PDP has the support of 80 percent of the electorate while other parties have 20 percent.

Aziegbemi said: “Please note that anyone who deprives any human being of exercising his fundamental human rights is just as bad as enslaving or killing him.

“As such, people do not deserve anything less from the law.

“We call on the parents of all the ad hoc staff that will be engaged in this election to call their wards to order.

“Edo people deserve free, fair, credible, and peaceful election; and nobody, whether in the security agencies or in INEC should be allowed to subvert the will of the people.

“We will follow the process from A to Z from multiple angles.

“If you are caught doing the wrong thing; be assured that as a party that believes in and promotes the right for people to freely express their choice; we will be waiting and ensuring that law affects the fullest possible punishment.”

Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan Chapter, has warned against the reopening of schools without provisions for schools to meet COVID-19 precautionary guidelines.

Its chairman, Prof. Ayo Akinwole, stated his misgivings; due to the COVID-19 pandemic in a statement made available to newsmen in Ibadan on Sunday, September 6

Akinwole stated that the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on schools could be enormous; if responsibility was not taken to ensure safety.

The ASUU Chairman then warned parents not to jubilate at the news of a possible reopening of schools.

However, they should ask the government to put measures in place; so as not to have a surge in COVID-19 that might happen; as a result of ill-thought-out reopening, he said.

“Our position, as a responsible union in all these is that; throwing schools open in the midst of all these; is an open invitation to the tragic explosion of the COVID-19 scourge; on a scale never witnessed anywhere since its outbreak.”