The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta says it has pulled out of the Saturday Local Government council elections in the state.
The APC Publicity Secretary in the state, Mr Sylvester Imonina, said this in a statement in Asaba on Saturday.
Imonina said the party boycotted the election because the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC), and other stakeholders “cheated the Delta people again.”
“I told the people of Delta some days ago that there were evil machinations to deprive them of their right to choose who to lead them at the local government level.
“Yesterday, March, 5, 2021 at DSIEC headquarters in Asaba, Delta APC representatives were not allowed to take statistics of the materials that it intended transporting to the different LGAs in the state.
“This is despite the insistence of the party’s representatives that it is the right of political parties to inspect and confirm what and where the materials are meant for .”
He said the decision of the party might be painful in view of the huge resources it already committed to the election.
Meanwhile, the party has urged its members to be peaceful and legal in bringing to the attention of the Delta people and Nigerians the “sacrilegious acts” of the electoral body and the stakeholders.
Reacting to the boycott, DSIEC’s Director of Public Affair, Mr Arubi Orugbo, said the commission was not aware of the boycott.
Orugbo, however, said that APC’s boycott was of no consequence to the election.
“You cannot start shifting the goalposts at the middle of a football game. It is just irrelevant,” he said.