PDP Set To Scuttle New Election Dates.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) might not be favourably disposed to going ahead with the March 28 presidential election after all.

A report by The Punch says the leadership of the ruling party has already mapped out strategies aimed at ensuring that the election is not held at the re-scheduled date.

The report claimed that the PDP was actually behind the new Young Democratic Party (YDP), a party that came to the attention of Nigerians after it won a court case on Wednesday compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to re-print the ballot papers for the election to include the party.

The YDP had in a press conference on Thursday asked INEC to postpone the forthcoming general election if it could not accommodate the party on its ballot paper. The Federal High Court in Abuja had also ordered the electoral umpire to register the YDP as a political party.
Speaking on behalf of the party, the national publicity secretary of the YDP, Ugo Nwofor, said: “If INEC does not have the appropriation for logistics for reprinting of its ballot papers then INEC ought to within the constitutional provision further re-schedule the general election so as to accommodate our party.




“In either of the two options, our party is ready, it has been a long journey for YDP; we wish INEC would explore the first option.”

Moments after the press briefing, one of the leaders of the YDP was sighted at the national headquarters of the PDP in Abuja, where he said he had come to confer with some of its officers.

In an off-the-record conversation with The Punch, he said he was at Wadata House to brief PDP chieftains on the success of their legal work.

The next day, he told the publication on the telephone that they were planning a fresh legal option to compel the INEC to comply with the court order.

According to him, “Recall that I was at the national headquarters of the ruling party in Abuja on Thursday where I met our partners. We are working together to move the nation forward and deepen our renascent democracy.

“We have already fixed the dates for our convention and we would pick our presidential and other candidates for the elections. We expect INEC to give us a chance as stated in the court order.”

However, it is reported that one of the strategies of the PDP is to head for the court and ask that the presidential election be set aside, by pleading that YDP was excluded.

Efforts made to speak with the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, on the issue failed. He neither answered the phone nor responded to a text message sent to him.

Meanwhile, the umbrella body of the Igbo nation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo (Lagos state chapter), has denied the news reports that surfaced in the media recently, that they endorsed the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd).