The All Progressives Congress
Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) has said that committing the
fate of elections into the hands of the military is a coup against the
people. The APCPCO’s position is coming on the heels of assertions by
the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
Prof Attahiru Jega, on the Senate floor on Wednesday that the service
chiefs will have to ratify the March 28 date for the presidential
election and also express readiness to deploy troops for the polls
before they could hold.
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while reacting, dared the APC to give full guarantee of the protection of lives and properties of Nigerians during the election if they do not want the Nigerian military to play its traditional role.
However, the APC, in its own reaction said it is grateful to the Nigerian military for its readiness to deploy troops for the March 28 and April 11 general elections, but advised that its services would be better utilised in other pressing areas, especially in the combating of insurgency and protection of the territorial integrity of the country.
In a press statement signed by its director of media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, it said that the idea of having the military chiefs determine when elections will hold is a mockery of democracy, adding that “the military and democracy are not complementary and subjecting the fate of a democracy to the military is a coup against the people.”
Shehu called on INEC to take cognisance of subsisting judgments of superior courts on the role of the military during elections and the military’s own commitment of its readiness to deploy troops for the 2015 elections.
“The idea of placing the fate of democracy in the hands of the military is not only alien to the Nigerian Constitution; extant judicial pronouncements have clearly stipulated that the military has no duty to play in the conduct of elections, he said.
“We are not comfortable with any attempt to draft the military into election function and are reassured by the declaration by President Jonathan that the elections would hold as scheduled by INEC on March 28 and April 11.
“We have carefully studied positions made by the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday and we want to put it on record that we are not in any way comfortable with the idea that the military service chiefs will determine whether the March 28 date of the presidential election is feasible or not.”
PDP reacts
But the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday reiterated the need to allow the military provide security during the forthcoming election just as it refuted the allegation by the opposition All Progressives Congress that the use of the military during the forthcoming election was tantamount to a coup against Nigerians.
The party, while lambasting the opposition party for making such an allegation, recalled that the governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, had openly thanked President Goodluck Jonathan for allowing the military provide adequate security for the governorship election in the state.
The PDP further dared the APC to guarantee it can provide security during the elections if they don’t want the military to participate in providing security during the polls.
The national publicity secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, while reacting to the allegation, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that the ruling party would be guided by the pronouncement of INEC on the matter, noting that the military has helped to provide security during elections.
He said “we will abide with the laid down procedures and guidance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) .
“There can’t be a coup when there is a democratic process, which the PDP led government has always promoted.
“The question of coup is to the APC, a ploy to manipulate the distribution of PVC and deprive a lot of Nigerians the right to vote during the election; that is when there is a coup.
“For us in the PDP, we know that the issue of military during election is not important because they don’t play any role other than to provide security during the electoral process.
“However, I want to draw the mind of the APC back to when the Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole thanked President Goodluck Jonathan for allowing the military provide security for the governorship election in Edo State , which he won.
APC Accuses PDP Of Plot To Blackmail Clerics, Others Over Buhari
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation has also alleged that the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) through some government security agencies, plans to shift the paradigm of public perception of corruption on them to the camp of the opposition by witch-hunting some northern Muslim clerics and district heads of having stolen Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to rig election for the APC flag-bearer, retired General MuhammaduBuhari.
A statement signed by the APCPCO director of media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja yesterday and made available to LEADERSHIP Weekend, said: “If this clandestine plan is hatched like the use of the military to rig the polls in the governorship election in Ekiti State last year, or the underhand treatment currently being given to INEC and other state institutions, we in the APC and majority of fellow Nigerian men and women would disbelieve it, resist it and question it till such an oppressive decision is rescinded and the anomaly rectified.”
“Information at our disposal shows that certain state agencies like the customs, immigration, police and so on are waiting on the wings to mop up PVCs across the country (possibly from illegal immigrants) and bundle them on hapless religious leaders and district heads of northern extraction, to corroborate PDP’s over-flogged narrative that people in the northern states have collected voters cards by proxy; even though INEC top-shots have publicly denied such allegations. The ploy to also heap this electoral offence on APC cum Buhari supporters is, to say the least, dastardly, cruel and heinous,” Shehu said.
“Election must not be seen or taken as a do-or-die affair. Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians and the best hands should govern it. After all, the opposition has won elections in Senegal, Ghana, Sri Lanka, among others. Why should ours be an exemption?” he queried.
He noted that what President Jonathan and his party should learn from their “multifarious campaign of malice and mudslinging”, into which millions of state funds are daily being pumped, is that Nigerians are not buying their lies and they will voice out their anger through the ballot at the polls.
“No amount of cajolement or harassment can bottle the people’s power to elect their leaders. It is a constitutional right that not even the military has the power to remove. General Buhari is a man of proven integrity and honesty. These are the tangible and incorruptible attributes that endear him to the masses,” he added
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while reacting, dared the APC to give full guarantee of the protection of lives and properties of Nigerians during the election if they do not want the Nigerian military to play its traditional role.
However, the APC, in its own reaction said it is grateful to the Nigerian military for its readiness to deploy troops for the March 28 and April 11 general elections, but advised that its services would be better utilised in other pressing areas, especially in the combating of insurgency and protection of the territorial integrity of the country.
In a press statement signed by its director of media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, it said that the idea of having the military chiefs determine when elections will hold is a mockery of democracy, adding that “the military and democracy are not complementary and subjecting the fate of a democracy to the military is a coup against the people.”
Shehu called on INEC to take cognisance of subsisting judgments of superior courts on the role of the military during elections and the military’s own commitment of its readiness to deploy troops for the 2015 elections.
“The idea of placing the fate of democracy in the hands of the military is not only alien to the Nigerian Constitution; extant judicial pronouncements have clearly stipulated that the military has no duty to play in the conduct of elections, he said.
“We are not comfortable with any attempt to draft the military into election function and are reassured by the declaration by President Jonathan that the elections would hold as scheduled by INEC on March 28 and April 11.
“We have carefully studied positions made by the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday and we want to put it on record that we are not in any way comfortable with the idea that the military service chiefs will determine whether the March 28 date of the presidential election is feasible or not.”
PDP reacts
But the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday reiterated the need to allow the military provide security during the forthcoming election just as it refuted the allegation by the opposition All Progressives Congress that the use of the military during the forthcoming election was tantamount to a coup against Nigerians.
The party, while lambasting the opposition party for making such an allegation, recalled that the governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, had openly thanked President Goodluck Jonathan for allowing the military provide adequate security for the governorship election in the state.
The PDP further dared the APC to guarantee it can provide security during the elections if they don’t want the military to participate in providing security during the polls.
The national publicity secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, while reacting to the allegation, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that the ruling party would be guided by the pronouncement of INEC on the matter, noting that the military has helped to provide security during elections.
He said “we will abide with the laid down procedures and guidance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) .
“There can’t be a coup when there is a democratic process, which the PDP led government has always promoted.
“The question of coup is to the APC, a ploy to manipulate the distribution of PVC and deprive a lot of Nigerians the right to vote during the election; that is when there is a coup.
“For us in the PDP, we know that the issue of military during election is not important because they don’t play any role other than to provide security during the electoral process.
“However, I want to draw the mind of the APC back to when the Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole thanked President Goodluck Jonathan for allowing the military provide security for the governorship election in Edo State , which he won.
APC Accuses PDP Of Plot To Blackmail Clerics, Others Over Buhari
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation has also alleged that the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) through some government security agencies, plans to shift the paradigm of public perception of corruption on them to the camp of the opposition by witch-hunting some northern Muslim clerics and district heads of having stolen Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to rig election for the APC flag-bearer, retired General MuhammaduBuhari.
A statement signed by the APCPCO director of media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja yesterday and made available to LEADERSHIP Weekend, said: “If this clandestine plan is hatched like the use of the military to rig the polls in the governorship election in Ekiti State last year, or the underhand treatment currently being given to INEC and other state institutions, we in the APC and majority of fellow Nigerian men and women would disbelieve it, resist it and question it till such an oppressive decision is rescinded and the anomaly rectified.”
“Information at our disposal shows that certain state agencies like the customs, immigration, police and so on are waiting on the wings to mop up PVCs across the country (possibly from illegal immigrants) and bundle them on hapless religious leaders and district heads of northern extraction, to corroborate PDP’s over-flogged narrative that people in the northern states have collected voters cards by proxy; even though INEC top-shots have publicly denied such allegations. The ploy to also heap this electoral offence on APC cum Buhari supporters is, to say the least, dastardly, cruel and heinous,” Shehu said.
“Election must not be seen or taken as a do-or-die affair. Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians and the best hands should govern it. After all, the opposition has won elections in Senegal, Ghana, Sri Lanka, among others. Why should ours be an exemption?” he queried.
He noted that what President Jonathan and his party should learn from their “multifarious campaign of malice and mudslinging”, into which millions of state funds are daily being pumped, is that Nigerians are not buying their lies and they will voice out their anger through the ballot at the polls.
“No amount of cajolement or harassment can bottle the people’s power to elect their leaders. It is a constitutional right that not even the military has the power to remove. General Buhari is a man of proven integrity and honesty. These are the tangible and incorruptible attributes that endear him to the masses,” he added
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