Abuja, Nigeria 10 Feb 2015: The All Progressives Congress Presidential
Council Organisation (APCPCO) has decried what it calls embedded vested
interest and sinister motives behind the polls postponement and asked
President Goodluck Jonathan and his party (PDP) to come clean on the wave
of negative speculations in the public domain, to avert unrest and
possible civil disobedience that could scuttle our hard-earned democracy.
In a statement on Tuesday in Abuja by its Director of Media and Publicity,
Malam Garba Shehu, APCPCO frowned at the unholy alliance between the
Jonathan government, the PDP and the military for the purposes of
subverting the franchise of the people in the rescheduled presidential and
other elections on March 28 and April 11 respectively.
“If the witch cried in the night and the baby died in the morning, it
would not be a mere coincidence. Hence, the body of civilised and
democratic people around the world believe that the security excuse used
by this unpopular government to prolong the polls is untrue and
pretentious.
“What type of democracy allows compromising security chiefs to determine
when elections would hold or not? Now, the National Security Adviser (NSA)
has become the megaphone for this government. He went to Chatham House in
the UK to call for election postponement which he has now obtained. Next,
he claims he would crush Boko Haram within six weeks. What if he can’t,
will there be a further excuse to extend the elections and create
constitutional impasse? Nigerians are no fools and nobody can pull soiled
cotton over our eyes anymore.
“We are inundated with information as to how this government wants to
tamper with due process by discrediting INEC and even sack its Chairman,
raise false alarms, rig the election with military connivance and
eventually scuttle democracy, replacing it with an interim government.
For all we know and can see, the contraption of an interim government has
no place in the constitution as former President Obasanjo said on BBC
Monday night.
“President Jonathan must come clean on these allegations. He is the
Commander-in-Chief, and not the NSA. Hence he must, as a matter of
urgency, speak to the nation and the world on these salient allegations. A
refusal would make him the historic President who doesn’t give a damn
while on national assignment.”