The national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday at a news conference in Lagos said President Goodluck Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are terrified of the outcome of next month’s presidential election, hence their attempt to scuttle the general election in its entirety. APC said despite local and international concerns, the Jonathan administration has continued to pursue a clearly thought-out agenda to scuttle next month’s general election, using a two-pronged approach. “All in all, these arguments against election postponement are a smokescreen. The truth is that the forthcoming elections terrify the PDP and the Jonathan administration to such an extent that they are looking for ways to postpone or scuttle the polls,” APC said. APC, however, insisted that the February dates for the elections were sacrosanct and must hold as scheduled, saying it was more comfortable with the assurances of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, that the commission is ready for the elections as scheduled, than the alarm raised by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), calling for a postponement. National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, who briefed journalists, said the APC had on January 22 rejected the call by Dasuki for the postponement of the elections, ostensibly to give more time for INEC to distribute permanent voters’ cards (PVCs). But APC said: “In spite of this, we have noted with dismay that the Jonathan administration has continued to pursue the plot to shift the elections. “That plot in itself is one of a two-pronged approach being pursued by the administration to either shift or scuttle the elections, which are scheduled for February 14th and 28th. “The other is the campaign for an interim government. It is important to state here that for the APC as a party, both options represent the Devils Alternative (apologies to British writer Frederick Forsyth, who has a book by the same title), and are totally, absolutely unacceptable to us under any circumstance.” The APC noted that “when President Goodluck Jonathan met with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday, the president said he told the visiting US top diplomat that the ‘May 29th handover date was sacrosanct’. “We say this is not reassuring enough, and that for us, the February 14th and 28th dates for the elections are as sacrosanct as the handover date of May 29th.” The APC, which insisted that the only institution with the right to express reservations or misgivings about the state of preparations for the elections is INEC, added: “We are more assured by the call made by Mr. Kerry, that the elections should be held on time as scheduled. Nothing short of that will be acceptable to our party. “We are also satisfied with the assurance by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that it is ready for the elections. The electoral body has also said it will continue with PVC distribution until the eve of the elections. Therefore, the orchestrated campaign about INEC not being ready for the elections is sheer baloney! “Now, make no mistakes about it, we are aware of the limitless capacity of the PDP and the Jonathan administration for anti-democratic and desperate actions in pursuit of selfish motives that have nothing to do with the interest of the good people of Nigeria. “We are aware of the clandestine moves, including reaching out to various interest groups and hiring talking heads to make the television rounds, being made by the administration to get the elections shifted. “The Jonathan administrations apologists are hiding under the facade that millions of Nigerians will be disenfranchised if the elections should proceed as scheduled. “Again, they are using the terror attacks in some parts of the North to advance their election shift argument. We sincerely hope the recent escalation of Boko Haram attacks, and the siege on Maiduguri on Sunday, a day after President Jonathan campaigned in the city, are not connected to this sophistry. “If indeed the Jonathan administration is genuinely concerned that many Nigerians have not received their PVCs, let it declare a three-day public holiday to give working Nigerians the opportunity to collect their PVCs. “Let the government work with INEC to ensure that the PVCs are distributed at the polling units. If these steps are followed, within five days, the distribution would have been completed.” Concluding, the APC spokesman said: “Let me summarise the stand of our party, the APC, regarding next months general election: APC is ready for the elections, and under no circumstances will we accept a postponement. “For us, February 14th and 28th are as sacrosanct as May 29th, the handover date. The government has had four years to prepare, and the dates for the elections were announced over a year ago, therefore there is no going back now. “We note that the PDP has also said it is ready for the polls. That is good news. Let them now end their clandestine push for either a postponement or the formation of an interim government, stop engaging in scare and scandal mongering and dwell on issues ahead of the polls. “We are satisfied with the assurances by INEC that it is ready for the polls, and we call on the Jonathan administration to give the electoral body all the support and resources it requires to organise successful elections. “Any postponement of the elections will mean that INEC is not independent and that it is being dictated to by the federal government, a position that will hurt the credibility of the electoral umpire. “Finally, any postponement on the basis of the insurgency in the North-east will represent a victory for the terrorist group Boko Haram, and will create a constitutional logjam that will take Nigeria back to 1993. Believe me, we have travelled that route before and it was not pleasant.” APC also called on the Inspector-General of Police (IG) to urgently institute a probe into the stoning of President Goodluck Jonathans campaign train in Bauchi and Katsina States last week. The party said its decision to ask for the probe followed the revelation by a top PDP member that the attack was indeed stage managed by unnamed PDP stalwarts. In a statement on Monday by the party’s spokesman, it said the investigation was necessary in view of the criminal nature of the attacks, and the attempt to shift the blame to the APC. “We stand by our earlier statement in which we pointedly accused the PDP of sponsoring the attacks on President Jonathan in Katsina and Bauchi as part of its devilish plan to demonise the opposition and force a postponement of next month’s general election, and we are glad we have been proved right,” Mohammed said. “We will like to quote what Governor Isa Yuguda said on the Hausa Service of the BBC as reported by Daily Trust and other media outlets on Sunday: ‘I am sure and let the world know that the people who did this thing were PDP members and those politicians in Abuja were the ones behind it; they were not APC members. They found these youths on the road and gave them brooms and they instructed them that when the president was passing they should raise the brooms and pelt them at him’,” APC said. The party said it was now apparent that the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation was out of tune with developments within its own party, hence its spokesman considers the APC’s statement that the attack was orchestrated by the PDP as “absurd and reckless”, without a shred of evidence to support this specious argument. Meanwhile, the clamour for the postponement of the elections appears to be getting some support from civil society groups, as the Nigerian Hopes Alive Project yesterday blocked the office of INEC in Abuja demanding members of the extension of both the Presidential and National Assembly elections slated for February 14 by 60 days. They also demanded that the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections slated for February 28 be extended by two months. For hours, members of the group in their white vests and green face caps blocked all entrances leading to Zambesi Crescent that leads to INEC’s office. As a result, other establishments such as Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), West African Examination Council (WAEC), the Veterinary Council and National Medical Council (NMC) were blocked by the protesting civil society organisation. Its members chanted slogans like: “Why Nigerians want a 60 day extension”, “INEC has not produced all the PVCs”, “Those produced have not been adequately distributed”, Section 135 (3) of the 1999 constitution allows for the extension” and “Please support this call to save our nation from imminent disaster”. Speaking to THISDAY, the coordinator of the group, Mrs. Ifeanyinwa Nwagbo, said the extension of the next month general election would be the most necessary thing to do, as it would help reduce violence on election day. She said: “Imagine that INEC in the last eight months commenced the distribution of the permanent voters’ cards and within the eight months has only succeeded in distributing 38 million cards out of the 68 million eligible voters. “What magic would INEC do to distribute 30 million PVCs between now and the presidential election, which is less than 16 days? “What magic can it perform, when it is not sure that all the PVCs will be received from the manufacturers? “Our demand is clear, extend the general election by 60 days. It is still within the constitution. The United States should not tell us what to do, because if it is in their country; they know what to do and do it right. “It is still within the constitution to extend it and save the nation from imminent disaster. If eligible voters go to the polling stations and see their names, but they were not allowed to vote, do you know the level of violence it would cause? We are saying that a stitch in time saves more than nine.” As the protesters refused to disperse and the traffic situation was becoming chaotic, the security officials in INEC took the leaders of the group to meet with members of the Election Management Body (EMB). However, Jega and his national commissioners were holding a meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) from the 36 states and FCT. At the meeting, Jega told the RECs that the meeting was necessary, as it would help the commission to put heads together on the general election. According to the INEC chairman, “We have to have this meeting because it is important as we approach the 2015 elections, so that we can take stock as we prepare adequately for the very daunting and challenging task ahead. As we approach the elections, obviously all sort of things are going to happen, politicians are very busy with their campaigns and quite often the commission gets dragged into the politicisation of the campaigns.” He informed the commissioners and RECs to remain focused and to busy themselves by ensuring that the 2015 elections are remarkably much better than the 2011 general election. “We have to continue to ensure that whatever we do, we remain impartial and non-partisan and we must create a level playing field for all political parties, candidates and contestants. “We need to ensure that we are ready to conduct, free fair and credible elections in the 2015. “We also need to assure ourselves that indeed we are ready for the business ahead of us,” he said. Also, in an INEC bulletin made available to journalists, the commission announced the rejection of governorship candidates submitted by political parties. INEC is expected to publish the list of all the governorship candidates of all the political parties contesting the February 28 election today. According to the INEC bulletin, “The parties and affected states are: Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) in Delta State; Labour Party (LP) in Niger State; New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Ogun State; Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in Oyo State; United Democratic Party in Rivers State; and Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) in Sokoto and Zamfara States, respectively. The commission’s decision was contained in a Decision Extract signed by the Director in the commission’s secretariat, Ishiaku A. Gali. It said the commission had also approved that the House of Representatives election in Ado/Opoku/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency of Benue State, being uncontested, the nominated candidate should be declared elected on the day of the election by the Returning Officer.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 12:31:18 +0000
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