PDP Rejects Gamus As INEC Commissioner

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the confirmation of Rhoda Gumus as a National Commissioner (South-South) in the Independent National Electoral Commission, alleging that she is a card-carrying member of All Progressives Congress (APC).
The PDP described the confirmation which was done as a coup against democracy and an open invitation to “serious political crisis that can derail our hard-earned democracy and lead to breakdown of law and order if not immediately reversed.”
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, disclosed this in a statement titled, ‘Confirmation of APC’s Rhoda Gumus As INEC Commissioner, A Coup Against Democracy.’
The PDP said, “In confirming Prof Gumus, the APC-led Senate leadership has exposed itself as anti-people and completely insensitive to the aspiration of Nigerians for credible and transparent elections in 2023.
“The action of the APC-led Senate is highly provocative and incendiary because it is in violation of Paragraph 14 (2)(a) of the 3rd Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), which provides that “a member of the Commission shall be non-partisan and a person of unquestionable integrity”.
“Such violent assault on the Constitution and our electoral process by the APC cannot be allowed to stand.
“The media space is awash with reports of Prof. Gumus as a member of the APC in Bayelsa State with APC Registration Form No: BAY/YEN/08/58315 and reportedly as number 27 in her APC Ward Register.”
According to the PDP, in nominating and confirming an APC card-carrying member into INEC,  President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC-led Senate leadership have recklessly violated the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) which they swore to uphold and defend.
”This action is designed to corrupt and compromise the electoral commission and pave way for the APC to rig the 2023 general elections.
“Nigerians can recall how President Buhari had earlier sought to impose his aide and card-carrying member of the APC, Lauretta Onochie, as INEC Commissioner but was stiffly resisted by Nigerians.
“The APC which thrives in impunity has again nominated and confirmed Prof Gumus, another APC card-carrying member as National Commissioner in INEC in flagrant violation of the constitution and total disregard for the Nigerian people.