The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has rejected the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to allow the All Progressive Congress, APC, substitute its candidate in the governorship election in Kogi State, which the electoral body has now scheduled to be concluded on December 5.

INEC on Monday ordered supplementary elections in the places where the ballot was cancelled on Saturday and also invited the APC to substitute its candidate, Abubakar Audu, who died on Saturday after the poll was declared inconclusive by the electoral body.

INEC’s announcement came after clarification by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, that the election had to be concluded and that the APC could be allowed to replace its candidate.

INEC secretary, Augusta Ogakwu, in a statement on Monday stated that it would conclude Saturday’s election by conducting a supplementary poll in the 91 polling units where elections were cancelled.

The electoral also fixed the supplementary election for December 5.

However, reacting to the development, the PDP through its national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh, alleged a conspiracy between Malami and the INEC chairman and demanded for the resignation of the two of them.

“This INEC under the leadership of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has shown itself as partisan, morally bankrupt and obviously incapable of conducting a credible election within our laws,” Metuh said in a statement issued on Monday.

The party said that by towing the line followed by the Attorney General, the electoral body had mortgaged its independence.

“The party is shocked that INEC, a supposedly independent electoral umpire could allow itself to succumb to the antics of the APC by following the unlawful directive of an obviously partisan AGF to substitute a candidate in the middle of the ballot process,” Metuh said in the statement.

He said that the PDP was at a loss as to which law INEC and the Attorney General relied on to arrive at their positions, reasoning that the implication is that the APC would have fielded two different governorship candidates in one election.

“The clear implication of this action of the AGF and INEC is that the APC would be fielding two different governorship candidates in the on-going Kogi election, meaning that INEC would be transferring votes cast for late Prince Abubakar Audu to another candidate, scenarios that have no place in the constitution of the land,” the PDP stated, while rejecting the decision.

“Consequently, the PDP rejects in its entirety, this brazen move by the APC and INEC to circumvent the laws and ambush the yet-to-be concluded election by introducing a practice that is completely alien to the constitution and the electoral act,” the party said