A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mr Emmanuel Ogidi, has rated the performance of the 9th National Assembly “very low’’ ahead of the 2021 Independence Day celebration.

The party chieftain, in an interview on Thursday, in Abuja frowned at the parliament’s refusal to make electronic transmission of electoral results compulsory in the Electoral Act.

Ogidi, who is a former Vice National Chairman, PDP South South, said that the assembly had not done much in ensuring checks and balances in the system.

“This 9th National Assembly has not lived up to expectations , they even told us that anything the Executive brings, they will pass it; we can only rate them as an extension of the Executive.

“The shocking one is electronic transmission of electoral results, Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) is saying they are competent and can do it, the National Assembly is saying they do not have the facility, to the extent they went to bring NCC.

“This means they are planning to rig the 2023 elections but I am encouraging Nigerians to resist it. We must all come out and ensure that the right thing is done.

“The PDP members in the parliament have done their best but unfortunately, they cannot influence their APC counterpart, it is unfortunate but I sympathize with the good APC lawmakers unfortunately, they cannot do anything.

“The only thing we have succeeded in doing is to walk out from the chambers but that has not changed anything, shine your eyes Nigerians,’’ he said.

Ogidi, who is also a Special Adviser to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta, however, said that the PDP had repositioned itself and is ready to ensure Nigerians get what they truly deserve as citizens of the country.

He said that there was hope for the country saying that after the forthcoming PDP National Convention, the party would come out with choices that were acceptable to all Nigerians.

“I believe there is hope, as a Christian, I believe God has better things for us and with the way PDP is coming now, that is the new hope for Nigeria.

“I will encourage Nigerians to give us (PDP) another chance and let show that we know how to deal with situations like this; you may think that we have issues in PDP but sometimes before a plant grows, it has to die first.

“Some of the people that are leaving the party, some of them are part of the problem but I can assure you they will come when things start happening well again.

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“Some of them like to be where they are good things and some of them are being threatened by the Executive; not everybody can withstand the pressure of the state and I sympathize with those ones even though it is undemocratic.

“We are democrats and that is why we are called Peoples Democratic Party, Jonathan did not do that even when he had all the powers to. I can assure when we go out for our convention, we will come out with the best for Nigerians, our presidential candidate will be acceptable by Nigerians,’’he said.