Election Postponement Is “A Legal Coup”, Says Duke

Former governor of Cross River State and presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Donald Duke, has described the postponement of the General Elections as a “legal coup”.

Mr Duke said this during a press briefing in Lagos in response to the announcement on Saturday by INEC shifting the polls by one week.

He said INEC had denied the rumour of the shift that made the rounds shortly before the announcement by the commission’s chairman, only to admit two hours later and made the decision public.

“It’s unheard of,” the SDP candidate told reporters on Saturday. “I mean, how low would we get?”

He added, “Each time we think we’ve hit the rock bottom, we now find out that there is even a basement, a lower bottom to get to. And you know something; if you are a swimmer, you don’t spring up until you get to the bottom. In other words, we are not yet there at the bottom.”

Describing the decision by INEC as a national embarrassment, the SDP flag bearer alleged that the postponement was a script written for INEC with a view to stripping the opposition of all funds and disarm them completely.

He accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of starting the practice of shifting elections weeks to the exercise but added that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has taken the practice to a whole new level, postponing it hours to the polls.

Mr Duke said, “We all know that the government in power has unlimited access to finance but the opposition does not. So, by the time you get to election day, the opposition is exhausted or barely able to go through the process.”

He stated that the practice was a “coup within the ambit of the law”.