APC leaders urge security agencies to be neutral at elections

• PDP remains party to beat, says Lamido

LEADERS of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday met for several hours in Abuja to fine-tune strategies aimed at putting an end to electoral malpractices which they claimed pervade the polity since the return of democratic rule in 1999.

  Meanwhile, Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State has lamented the alleged rain of abuses on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the APC, expressing confidence that PDP remains the party to beat in the forthcoming general elections. He declared that Nigeria is not ripe to be governed by those he described as a bunch of pained, angry and desperate politicians in the name of opposition.

  At the APC parley held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, leaders and elders of the party from across the country watched with dismay an audio and video clip purportedly recorded by one Captain Sagir Koli depicting how prominent Nigerians in the corridor of power in cahoot with security personnel connived to rig the recent Ekiti governorship election.

  Before the party leaders met behind closed doors, they took turns to reiterate their commitment towards ensuring that the APC records a landslide victory in the polls.

The presidential candidate of the party, Maj-Gen Muhammadu Buhari described the revelations as worrisome, adding it is incumbent on heads of security outfits in the country to stay away from taking sides with politicians.

  Lamenting the alleged case of abuse of the military institutions, Buhari said it is unfortunate that “Up till now, there has been no official denial of this most unfortunate event. It makes me wonder, in the circumstances that led to shifting of the dates of the federal elections, whether the security services are even now being prepared to play similar roles in the March 28th and April 11th elections. Let me reiterate once more that our security services have serious constitutional responsibilities to the people of the nation and so their importance to the health of the country cannot be under estimated. It is therefore imperative that their leaders must not drag these invaluable institutions into the realm of partisan politics.

“ I personally and, am sure, all Nigerians, have tremendous respect for our security services. I therefore urge strongly that they stick to, and concentrate on, their constitutional duties, otherwise they stand the risk of becoming part of our already complicated national situation.”

   He urged all party leaders and faithful not to go to rest thinking that all is won, adding that the next six weeks is a long time since the President Goodluck Jonathan led administration would not rest on its oars to cling on to power.

  The Director General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, and Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi who previewed the inroads recorded by the party as Buhari’s campaign train traversed the length and breadth of the country said the startling revelation on the Ekiti poll should serve as a reminder that the PDP is not going to give up power on a platter of gold.

  Tinubu who described both Buhari and Osinbajo as president and vice president in waiting congratulated the party leaders for beating the President Jonathan led administration to the game on what he termed the “booby trap” it set for the APC on the shift of the general elections.

   At the end of the meeting, APC resolved that immediate and necessary disciplinary action be taken against all individuals that were involved in the alleged subversion of democracy in the Ekiti governorship election as revealed by the videos released by Sahara Reporters. 

The party said in line with the Court of Appeal decision that upheld an earlier judgement of the Sokoto Federal High Court that declared as illegal the participation of the military in the electoral process, the military should be kept away from election duties henceforth.

It said the new election dates of the 28th of March and 11th of April should remain sancrosact as the party will not tolerate any further shift. The party said the use of the card reader for the polls is non-negotiable.

Lamido, who spoke with State House correspondents after a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja yesterday, said: “What is this opposition in Nigeria? You must know Nigerian history. Nigeria cannot be governed by an aggregate of pain, anger and frustration. And I have been saying that those called opposition who are now abusing us, whatever might have been our crime, it was that crime that made them. We created them to become either governors or lawmakers, we created room for them to emerge. So whatever they think is our evil, they are the manifestations of the evil. Believe me, you don’t know Nigeria.”

  He described the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as the father of PDP and most of its leaders today.

  Lamido said beginning from President Goodluck Jonathan, whom he described at the “first child” of Obasanjo’s political children, to the governors and some members of the party’s national leadership, the PDP could not repay Obasanjo for the strong tutelage he had given them. “Even though we might have erred, abandoning the party was not the best solution,” Lamido said.

  The Jigawa governor said: “Baba is more than a party man. He is an icon, a national symbol and a leader and an inventor, a creator of all the institutions today in Nigeria from the presidency to the governors who are his own sons. And so, when a father is angry with his own children, we will only say we are sorry to him. But then we cannot be renounced for whatever it is. 

“No matter what we are, we may not be able to live up to his expectations. We might have made some mistakes, but abandoning us is not the solution because the country is first before anything else.”