APC faults 22-hour ‘curfew’ for Anambra poll

The All Progressives Congress has faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission for declaring a 22-hour restriction on movement from midnight on Friday, to 10pm on Saturday for the Anambra State governorship poll.

The party wondered why such an “extended curfew should be imposed because of an isolated election.”

In a statement on Wednesday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said even duringgeneral elections, people were allowed to move around freely from 4pm on election day.

APC said, “Election is not a war, but a celebration of democracy. Declaring a 22-hour curfew for an election in only one state raises serious questions: What is INEC hiding? Is the curfew meant to give riggers enough time to write and collate their cooked-up results? Are elections and free movement of people incompatible? Why does INEC need a 22-hour curfew to conduct a ‘peaceful and successful’ election in one state? Where in the world is a 22-hour curfew imposed during an
election?

”In any case, Anambra does not have the kind of terrain or riverine communities that will justify waiting for hours for election results to be taken from polling units to the collation centre, hence there is no reason to turn Anambra into a ghost state just to hold a governorship election.

”We therefore call on INEC to reconsider this overstretched curfew if it has no underlying motive for declaring it in the first instance. After all, information at our disposal has it that some decent INEC officials have rejected being part of the Anambra election because they do not want to be tainted by the shenanigans of some of their unscrupulous colleagues who are colluding with do-or-die politicians for ‘thirty pieces of silver’.”