Abuja quakes as Buhari, Oyegun, Amaechi protest *A MUST READ FOR ALL* All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders yesterday took to the streets their case against the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration.Some of the party’s leading lights, including Chiarman John Odigie-Oyegun, led a “Salvation Rally” in Abuja, accusing President Jonathan of using the Boko Haram insurgency as a joker to win election. The party said there was no limit to the length the President had not gone in his “obsession” for re-election. It accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of working in concert with the Presidential Villa to corrupt the system and disenfranchise voters in APC-controlled states. APC queried why the Permanent Voters Cards collection and the continuous registration in 12 states were a fiasco. It challenged the government and INEC to explain why the PVC collection was muddled up in Lagos, Kano Rivers, Niger, Ogun, Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara and all APC strongholds The APC said it was becoming obvious that President Goodluck Jonathan might be unable to organise a free and fair election next February. The party said the President was also planning to use the extension of the emergency rule not to conduct the 2015 poll in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. It protested against the inadequate funding of the Federation Account to, in the party’s view, starve APC-controlled states of funds. Besides the rally, the APC chieftains defied old age and apparatchik of office to march around Abuja metropolis to draw the attention of the government and Nigerians to the insurgency in the Northeast. Odigie-Oyegun, in an address to open the Salvation Rally at the Eagle Square in Abuja, said the party had tabled four demands which the President must address immediately. He said the rally was a demonstration of its lack of confidence in Jonathan’s administration. Odigie-Oyegun said: “We are here today as a practical demonstration of our lack of confidence in the ability or willingness of President Goodluck Jonathan to organise a free and fair election come February 2015. “President Goodluck Jonathan is so desperate to win re-election that it will now appear that there is a secret understanding that our security forces should turn a blind eye to the Boko Haram Insurgency so that the insurgents can occupy as much territory as possible and make elections impossible in these areas, knowing full well these are APC strongholds. “Otherwise, how does one explain that local hunters carrying dane guns and amulets are capable of dislodging the dreaded Boko Haram while our once proud army, which has distinguished itself in and out of the country, has failed? We daily hear idle talks that the President needs to declare total war on Boko Haram. “ Pray, what has the Jonathan government been doing since the moment the state of emergency was declared the very first time? Or is the President saying that he declared and renewed the state of emergency only to cage the civil populace so that the insurgents can have a free rein?” Odigie-Oyegun said the party suspected that Boko Haram insurgency was being used to promote Jonathan’s re-election bid. To APC, the extension of the emergency rule may be the President’s ploy not to conduct the 2015 poll in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. He added: “Without doubt, the war against Boko Haram has become a tool for self enrichment and a tool to disenfranchise Nigerians who are perceived not likely to vote for President Jonathan’s re-election. “Everything points to the fact that President Jonathan’s handling of the Boko Haram insurgency is aimed at one thing and one thing only: disenfranchisement of persons who are perceived not to be in support of his re-election, especially in the North-Eastern part of the country. “Is it not curious that Mubi was captured without one shot being fired by the insurgents or one single casualty on the part of Federal troops?” “As a matter of fact, we have it on good authority that as soon as President Goodluck Jonathan obtains the green light from the National Assembly, there will be no elections in the North-Eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. By this singular act, some five million Nigerians will be disenfranchised, making Jonathan’s re-election a foregone conclusion.” Odigie-Oyegun accused Jonathan of being obsessed with re-election by using every issue, including abduction of 219 Chibok girls, as pawns. He said: “There is no limit to the length Jonathan has not gone in his obsession for re-election, using the kidnapped Chibok girls as pawns on his political chessboard. On the 17th of October, he cruelly played on the emotions and sensibilities of all Nigerians, especially the families, relations and associates of the kidnapped girls, when he asked his Chief of Defence staff to falsely announce that Boko Haram has agreed to a ceasefire and that the release of the kidnapped Chibok girls was just a matter of days. “ Of course, President Jonathan and his cohorts knew this to be false but he needed to deceive Nigerians so as to prepare their minds for his eventual declaration for re-election.” He tabled the party’s four demands which Jonathan must address. They are: •an end to the raging insurgency that is daily killing and maiming our compatriots, •an end to the impunity that permeates the Jonathan Administration; •an end to the massive corruption that has left our compatriots impoverished in the midst of plenty; and •an unambiguous effort to ensure that that 2015 elections will be free and fair. The APC National Chairman wrote off the recent distribution of Permanent Voters Cards by INEC and declared the exercise as a deliberate plot to corrupt the system to disenfranchise voters in APC-controlled states. He said: “As you must all be aware, the recent exercise by INEC of collection of Permanent Voters Cards and continuous registration in 12 states of the Federation was a fiasco. The official explanation from the Independent National Electoral Commission is to blame it all on computer error.But we know this is a lie. “The truth of the matter is that the ICT unit of INEC, which is working hands in gloves with the Presidential villa, deliberately corrupted the system in order to disenfranchise voters in APC controlled states.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 09:49:32 +0000
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