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Tag: APC

  • Buhari supporters inaugurate sub-committees in Ondo

    Buhari supporters inaugurate sub-committees in Ondo

    AS the various aspirants mount political hustings ahead of the 2015 polls, supporters of the Buhari Campaign Organisation at the weekend inaugurated six sub-committees in Akure, the Ondo state capital as part of plans to facilitate the emergence of the former Head of State, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (rtd)as the presidential flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The committees which cuts across all sectors including Finance & Administration is headed by Mr. Wale Akinterinwa; Contact & Mobilisation by Mr Femi Idris; Strategy & Intelligence & Security being led by Prince Fioye Bajowa.

    Other committees namely: Publicity & Communication by Prince Olu Adegboro; Women Affairs by Mrs. Lola Fagbemi and Youth Affairs by Akogun Gbenga Omole.

    Committee members who are prominent APC leaders in the State were saddled with responsibility of mobilising human and material resources for the project in Ondo state.

    Speaking on behalf of Buhari, the Coordinator, Buhari Campaign Organisation, Ifeoluwa Oyedele, said, part of his plan for the country if elected is to restructure the federation and put in place disciplined fiscal federalism which would enhance devolution of powers to other tiers of government for effective governance.

    He noted that the 2015 election must be about issues that affect the well-being of the ordinary man on the streets and the performance records of the candidates as a pointer to their suitability for the role.

    Buhari promised that he would not drag religion into politics so that every man will be confident that the next president of the country will protect him even when they do not share the same religious beliefs.

    He said: “We will prove that with good management of our resources, Nigerians can once again see in their life time the naira favourably compare with the currencies of other civilized nations.”

    Buhari cautioned that nobody would be permitted to use any derogatory, abusive or insulting language against other contestants.

    He said” We must ensure that we do not allow PDP to drag us down the path of mudslinging nor attack on the persons of other candidates as they have attempted to do in previous elections and are starting to do even now.

    “It is my firm belief that the quest to secure the party ticket is a contest among brothers, nobody is therefore permitted to use any derogatory, abusive or insulting language against any of the other contestant.”

     

  • Jonathan’s Nigeria

    Jonathan’s Nigeria

    A country’ s frightening descent into banana republic

    One question that I have always remembered most times when I stumble on anything on the French Revolution was that asked by my European History teacher in my Higher School Certificate (HSC) days at the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo: “How did the French Revolution beget the dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte”? I guess someday, some students of Nigerian History would also be asked: “How did a potentially great Nigeria beget the serial incompetent and corrupt regimes hat brought it to this sorry pass”?

    It was clear immediately the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) on October 28 that the PDP would not take it kindly. I had said then that the party would resort to crude and primitive tactics instead of coming up with civilised means of settling scores, if any.

    In essence, the police take-over of the  National Assembly on Thursday was quite predictable. Discerning observers of the country’s political situation knew the day would not go without incident. President Goodluck Jonathan had written to the National Assembly for extension of the state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. If that had been granted, it would be the fourth such extension and no one needs to be reminded that the emergency is not working. If more than 200 school girls could be abducted from their school in Chibok in spite of emergency; if bombs could be exploding in motor parks and other public places, including schools even in the daytime in spite of emergency, we need no one to tell us that the emergency has failed. And, as the House of Representatives noted, if you are using a particular strategy that is not working, you restrategise. There is no evidence that the government has done or is now prepared to do things differently. In the terror war as in other spheres of life, it has been tall in words but abysmally short in action.

    Ordinarily, one would have condemned the action of the House of Representatives members who climbed the iron fence at the National Assembly to make their way into the chamber. But then, that would not be fair because their action only resonates with what the ruling party has been doing and which the presidency has pretended not to see. Impunity is only begetting impunity. The most recent example is Ekiti State where seven lawmakers hired two unknown quantities to make nine, to ‘impeach’ the speaker. The same police force headed by Mr. Suleiman Abba that provided cover for those who perpetrated the show of shame in Ekiti said it had to move in to prevent a breakdown of law and order at the National Assembly. It further claimed that Mr. Tambuwal came to the assembly complex with thugs. Much as they would have to provide evidence of this, the question to ask Mr. Abba is whether he had expected Mr. Tambuwal to be walking all alone when he, Abba, had withdrawn his security details illegally?

    Weeks have passed and Mr. Abba is yet to restore the security details because, in his view, Tambuwal has ceased to be the Speaker on account of his defection. Obviously, Mr. Abba is not aware that Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State and the speaker of the state house of assembly also defected from the Labour Party (LP) to the PDP, and none has relinquished his or her official position; none has lost any of the rights and privileges attached to their respective offices. Should the same law that binds the masquerade not be binding on the women in purdah, that is assuming Mr. Abba is in a position to say the action was illegal? Haba, Mr. Abba!  The IGP told journalists after a meeting with Vice President Namadi Sambo  over the sad incident on Friday that: “Somebody was removing road blocks mounted by police, we have never seen this kind of thing in the whole world”. But he did not tell us where else in the civilised world the police are used for partisan purposes like the Nigeria Police Force. The police, now an extension of the PDP, and like the ruling party, are now the litigant, the prosecutor, the judge and the law enforcer. Clearly, this presidency is several centuries late in coming. Clearly too, IGP Abba does not belong to this age.

    But what all we have been seeing point at is that the Jonathan presidency is bare without the country’s security forces. Indeed, one would not be wrong to say that even the security agencies see themselves more as the president’s and his party’s security agencies rather than those of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    But things cannot continue this way for long, with democracy now being endangered by people who contributed nothing to the struggle for it. This should not be surprising though because you cannot value what you did not labour for. Unfortunately, it is the same people who were nowhere to be found during the struggle for the return of democracy that have cornered the chunk of the spoils of the bitter struggles that brought democracy back in 1999.

    However, it is instructive to point out that things were not this bad in 1983 when Alhaji Shehu Shagari and his cohorts were rendered jobless. Sadly, we appear to be following the same trajectory. When in the Second Republic the (now late) Chief Obafemi Awolowo said our economy was collapsing, the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN), which I consider the PDP its offshoot, said there was nothing like that only to come out with what it called Economic Stabilisation Act (1982) which spelt out some austerity measures some months later. The problem then was oil glut which brought crude oil prices to rock bottom levels. About thirty-two years later, we are back to square one. Crude prices are going down again. And, after living in self-denial for months, the Federal Government came up with its own version of austerity measures. Just as in the Second Republic, those who saw the trend coming and warned earlier were called names, with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the country’s finance minister saying the country was not broke but that it only had cash flow problems.

    This is why one can understand US President Harry Truman who in frustration demanded for a one-handed economist. “Give me a one-handed economist” he said, adding “All my economists say, ‘on the one hand…on the other’”. For God’s sake, what is cash flow problem? If the cash is there, why would it not ‘flow’? Instead of sitting down to address the looming danger which has eventually stared us all in the face, they kept assuring there was no cause for alarm. Incidentally, the same Okonjo-Iweala is coordinating minister for the economy. Apparently she was so chosen because of her Bretton Woods background, which may not necessarily be useful in our kind of situation as a developing country. A President Truman would by now be shopping for her replacement.

    Regrettably, not President Jonathan because, just as Nigeria does not require an Okonjo-Iweala kind of finance minister at this point, the country’s problems transcend a presidency that is applying analogue solutions (brute force, illegalities, etc.) to digital problems. The end-time signs of the Second Republic are already manifesting: bad economy, crippling corruption, crass incompetence in high places and, to crown it all, using the security agencies as crutches to sustain a corrupt and inept government. Where did Alhaji Shagari end despite unleashing the kill and go on Nigerians?

    Perhaps never in the history of mankind has the goodluck of one man become the albatross of millions of fellow citizens. A president who has spent over four years in office cumulatively does not have to be as anxious for reelection as President Jonathan is to the point of intimidating everyone considered a hindrance to this importunate ambition. If the president had worked hard in the right direction, what should be speaking for him now are his achievements. He should be telling Nigerians not just the amount of megawatts of electricity he has added to what he met on ground but how much of it is available to them. Years after he said we should be ready to dash out our generators, we are still importing more. The president should show Nigerians the dent he has made on unemployment; he should tell them what the exchange rate was when he took over and what it is now. Even on his basic responsibility of security of lives and property, he is a monumental failure. That is why, like an old woman who is never at ease when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb, President Jonathan has become so intolerant of those who think he does not deserve a second term. And that is why he is unleashing the police and sometimes soldiers on them, even as the soldiers are unable to grapple with their basic responsibility of defending the country’s territorial integrity.

    We wobbled and fumbled to this sorry pass because we failed to protest against little impunities like the ones the PDP is daily perpetrating now. The danger, however, is that, four more years in the hands of this government, the question that a great historian asked about Ghana Empire would be relevant to Nigeria’s situation: “Despite its opulence, greatness and wealth, by 1240 A.D., Ghana Empire was no more. The question now is: What caused such an inglorious fall of such a glorious empire”?

  • Ondo APC favours primaries

    Ondo APC favours primaries

    MIDST growing rumours that some aspirants under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State may be enjoying favouritism, APC leaders have discountenanced that such won’t happen.

    At an emergency meeting of APC leaders in Owo local government hosted by Chief Idowu Okunrinbokun, it was emphasised that nobody has been endorsed as senatorial candidate in the zone.

    A lawyer and one of the aspirants, Mr. Nat Adojutelegan, gave insight into the position of the APC constitution on the issue.

    According to him, “Article 20(1) provides that all party positions prescribed by the constitution shall be filled through democratically conducted elections, subject to where consensus is possible.”

    Adojutelegan stressed that the constitution also states that where a candidate has emerged by consensus for an elective position, a voice of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ should be called to ensure that it was not an imposition which could breed crisis.”

    All aspirants were consequently directed to go to the field and work assiduously for victory after the primaries, as no one should await automatic ticket.

     

  • APC accuses Jonathan of sabotaging anti-Boko Haram war

    APC accuses Jonathan of sabotaging anti-Boko Haram war

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of sabotaging his own Administration’s war against Boko Haram on the altar of personal vindictiveness and political desperation, an action that is unbecoming of a self-respecting national leader.

    In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said just because he was so desperate to oust House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, President Jonathan ensured that the House could not meet as scheduled to consider his request for an extension of the State of Emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

    ‘’For a President who has severally stated his Administration’s commitment to the battle against the insurgency in the Northeast, is it not a cruel irony that he allowed his personal ego and political desperation to override his sense of propriety, by moving to have Rt. Hon. Tambuwal removed instead of having the House of Representatives sit to consider his request?

    ‘’Does anyone need any more evidence that the President’s sole preoccupation is how to win the 2015 elections, rather than the fate of the hundreds of Nigerians who are daily being killed and maimed at the epicentre of the insurgency? Had he been genuinely committed to the fight against the insurgents, would the President not have allowed the House to sit to consider his request? How does he feel now that the entire National Assembly has been shut down because of his capricious action?’’.

    APC said because of his meddlesomeness in the affairs of another arm of government, and also his blatant disregard for a court order that the status quo be maintained on the defection of the Speaker to the APC, the President suffered yesterday a moral and political defeat that will hunt him for a long time to come.

    ‘’The plot was simple: The Presidency decided to use the reconvening of the House as an opportunity to remove the Speaker. While Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha was accorded a presidential ride into the premises of the National Assembly, House Speaker Tambuwal was barred from entry by the hordes of security agents who had been deployed solely for that purpose.

    ‘’Their plan was to ensure that with Tambuwal locked out, Ihedioha would preside over the reconvened House and the Speaker will then be removed. The consideration of the request to extend the State of Emergency was not important to the Presidency. The fate of the Nigerians who are suffering from the insurgency, which has displaced 1.5 million people, does not bother the Presidency. All it wanted is to remove Tambuwal.

    ‘’However, the plan failed as members of the House overpowered the security personnel   and the Speaker was led on foot into the Chambers, even as a rain of teargas fell on them. In the end, the President himself sabotaged his Administration’s tepid war on terror, and he got himself a birthday gift he didn’t bargain for: A humiliating political defeat that played out on national television. This is a clear reminder that there is always a limit to impunity!,’’ the party said.

    APC said because it was clear that history is not a forte of this presidency, it (the Presidency) needs to be reminded that the kind of crisis it is willfully instigating in the National Assembly helped to truncate the First Republic in the early 1960s.

    The party said the crisis instigated yesterday by the Jonathan Administration at the National Assembly showed the prescience of the ‘’APC’s Salvation Rally’’ in Abuja a day earlier to protest the runaway impunity, corruption, poor governance, anti-democratic tendencies and win-elections-at-all-costs disposition of the Administration.

    ‘’We have said it before and we will restate it: It’s Jonathan first, Jonathan second, Jonathan third, Jonathan always for this President. If not, why will he be more interested in playing politics with the lives and blood of our sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters who are suffering untold hardships in the hands of Boko Haram, especially in the Northeast?

    ‘’Because of his ambition to be re-elected at all costs, President Jonathan is ready to throw Nigeria into crisis. He is ready to bring Nigeria down. He has presided over an unprecedented assault on democratic institutions. He has presided over the desecration of national institutions, especially the police.

    ‘’Is it right for the police to be trampling on the constitution? Is it right for the Inspector-General of Police, apparently acting under orders from the President, to deploy the police to prevent the Speaker from entering the House? Why on earth would you not allow the Speaker of the House, who is still seen as such by the law, to enter the House? What would have happened if the Speaker had refused to reconvene the House? Wouldn’t Nigerians have said he is putting his personal interest above national interest?’’ it queried.

    APC said surely, Nigeria is in clear and present danger from the inordinate ambition of President Jonathan to run for a second term, and called on all men and women of goodwill to speak out before a desperate President brings the country down on all Nigerians.

  • Buhari, Atiku, Ogbeh decry attack

    Buhari, Atiku, Ogbeh decry attack

    ALL Progressives Congress’ (APC) presidential aspirants, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as well as the party’s chieftain, Chief Audu Ogbeh, have condemned the police invasion of the National Assembly.

    Buhari said: “If it is true that the House of Representatives has been attacked and the Speaker shot at, then those who are supposed to be protecting the constitution are subverting it. God help us.”

    Former Vice President Atiku said “the siege mentality of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration poses grave danger to the nation’s democracy.”

    He condemned what he called “the crude method” being used by the Jonathan administration to harass and humiliate perceived political enemies into submission.

    Atiku said the action would not augur well for the nation’s democracy.

    A statement from his media office in Abuja noted that considering the fact that the rule of law and the separation of power were enshrined in the constitution, invading the National Assembly amount to trampling on the duties of the legislature.

    He explained that with emergency rule failing to stem the unrest in the Northeast, the Federal Government must work with, rather than against those who understand and have been elected by the people to govern.

    He said the behaviour of the PDP-led government towards Tambuwal was not decent and acceptable under a president that has committed himself to uphold the rule of law, adding that the “crisis highlights the absolute failure of the current PDP’s idea of government: arrogant, indifferent and incompetent.”

    He stressed that abuse of power by using state agents to harass, intimidate and humiliate perceived opponents was not only capable of heating the polity on frightening scale, but also carried the risks of polarising and politicising security operatives in the country.

    “What is happening at the National Assembly taken together with what unfolded today (yesterday) at the Ekiti House of Assembly is totally strange. It is not the democracy we fought for; for which many of our compatriots paid for with their lives. These free-riders should not be allowed to destroy what others built with their sweat and blood,” Atiku said.

    Ogbeh, in his reaction, said: “That is lawlessness, where the police begin to interpret the constitution and bully a democratic institution. It is the beginning of anarchy.”

    Ogbeh suggested that President Goodluck Jonathan should push for the passage of an insurgency act, instead of seeking for an extension of emergency rule.

    He explained that with such an act in place, vigilantes and hunters working with the military would be legally backed to join in the fight.

  • Abuja quakes as Buhari, Oyegun, Amaechi protest

    Abuja quakes as Buhari, Oyegun, Amaechi protest

    Oni, Onu, Oyinlola, El-Rufai, others lead Salvation Rally

    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.

    “How else do you explain the fact this same exercise, which had gone fairly well in 24 other states – mostly PDP states – is now a fiasco in Lagos, Kano Rivers, Niger, Ogun, Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara all APC strongholds and with the highest number of registered voters?

    “In the aforementioned states, millions of voters have been disenfranchised because the system was deliberately corrupted to wipe out their names from the voters register. Even those who were able to vote in 2011 could no longer find their names on the register.

    “Zero units are now to be found more in APC-controlled states or strongholds. The PDP, realising the overwhelming support and followership which APC enjoys in the above mentioned states, has deliberately decided to use the ICT department of INEC to rig the 2015 general elections at source by disenfranchising millions of the opposition party’s supporters.”

    Odigie-Oyegun said APC was joining issues with Jonathan on the poor funding of the Federation Account, which was meant to starve APC states of funds.

    He said: “President Goodluck Jonathan, embarrassed by the runaway success of APC controlled states, has in the last two years embarked on a wicked scheme to create disaffection among the electorate in APC-controlled states by not funding the Federation Account adequately.

    “While this may appear a general problem affecting all states, he has secretly and unconstitutionally being funding PDP controlled states. Not too long ago he dashed all PDP controlled states N2 billion each. Not only does this affect the letter and spirit of our constitution, it also portrays him as the President of the PDP and not that of Nigeria.

    “Although oil has been selling at well over USD108 against the benchmark of USD78, President Jonathan had been funding the Federation Account only between 60-70%. What is his official explanation for this? He claims it is as a result of massive crude oil theft that he has been unable to fund the Federation Account adequately!

    “The truth of the matter is that since the countrywide protest on the subsidy oil scam of 2012 and the embarrassing revelations by the House of Representatives panel, this government has now resorted to stealing from source.

    “How can we be losing steadily on daily basis over months the same quantity, 700,000 barrels of crude? It is this stealing of crude at source that has made it impossible for the govern to adequately fund the Federation Account, and which has led to poverty and unemployment.

    “Is it not baffling that up till today no serious individual or significant organisation has been apprehended for stealing 700,000 barrels of crude everyday! It is nothing but authority stealing-apologies to Fela Anikulpo-Kuti.

    “Only a few days ago, President Jonathan’s administration declared austerity measures. Given the difference between the selling price of our crude in the international market of an average of 108 dollars and the bench mark price of 78 dollars in the last three years, the government should today have close to fifty billion dollars (US$50 billion) in Excess Crude Account.

    “But as a result of corruption and arbitrary manipulation of the account, today the government has declared that there is just three billion dollars (US$3 billion) in this account.”

    The APC National Chairman said political developments in Osun, Edo, Ekiti had pointed to the fact that Jonathan might not allow a free and fair poll in 2015.

    He asked the international community to have keen interest in the process leading to the next General elections.

    He said: “Another pointer that President Jonathan will not allow a free and fair election in 2015 is the reckless use of the police and the military in past elections in Ekiti and Osun states. The extensive use of firearms by PDP thugs in Edo State in collusion with the police to vandalise the Edo State House of Assembly residential quarters, and the police humiliating treatment of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi are few examples of acts of impunity of this government.

    In Edo State, the police continue to disobey the orders of both the High Court and the Court of Appeal. In Ekiti State the police looked the other way when judges were being beaten and only two days ago in the same Ekiti under the protection of the police, democratically-elected principal officers of the state House of Assembly were sacked by six out of the 26 elected members.

    “The Nigeria Police Force has today become the armed wing of the PDP and they cannot be trusted under President Jonathan to be unbiased umpire in the February 2015 elections.

    “To the international community, we say it is not just enough to rush to declare any election free and fair on election day. We say election is a process, hence they must show interest in all the pre-election events leading up to the election day.

    “In the end, everyone must work together to ensure that the will of the people prevails, that no one who is eligible to vote is disenfranchised, and that every vote must not just be counted, it must count!”

    Odigie-Oyegun said the salvation rally was the beginning of the occupation of Abuja by the party unless the situation in the country improves.

    He said: “What you are seeing here today, which is the first stage of the occupation of Abuja, is just a warning shot.

    “If we do not see any discernible change of attitude on the part of the government, then we will move to the next stage on the list of actions that our party intends to take to stop the rot being perpetuated by the PDP-led Federal Government

    “We are, therefore, using this opportunity to alert Nigerians and the international community to what is undoubtedly a set of carefully-set booby traps on the path to free and fair elections next year.

    “To Nigerians who are desirous of a positive change, we say eternal vigilance is the price of freedom, and we call on them to join us to say NO to impunity, NO to corruption, NO to scorched-earth politics and NO to do or die politics.”

    The APC National Chairman later led some leaders and members of the party in a protest march around Abuja to press home their concerns and demands.

    Some of those at the Salvation Rally are: Former Head of State and presidential aspirant  Gen. Muhammadu Buhari; Governor Rotimi Amaechi; ex-governors Ogbonnaya Onu, Segun Oni(Deputy National Chairman for South),  Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; ex-FCT Minister, Nasir El-Rufai; Deputy National Chairman(North) Sen. Lawal Shuaibu; National Secretary Mai Mala Buni; the National Organising Secretary Osita Izunaso;  presidential aspirant Sam Nda-Isaiah, a former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Umaru Dembo,  National Publicity Secretary Lai Mohammed and Suleiman Hunkuyi, among others.

  • ‘PDP austerity measures have failed’

    ‘PDP austerity measures have failed’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State has lambasted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government for subjecting Nigeria to economic ruins.

    It said the austerity measures reeled out by the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, show that the PDP could not be trusted with the fate of any country seeking development and progress.

    In a statement in Lagos by its Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, the party said it was lamentable that the PDP laid no foundation and built no project that could help Nigeria survive the economic crisis occasioned by the drop in oil price.

    “We note that while oil price skyrocketed in the last 16 years of PDP’s governance, the people have been fed with wrecked infrastructure, grand reversal of the gains made during the previous era, a crumbling country, massive corruption, ineptitude and impunity.

    “We note that in any sane and normal society, the providential windfall Nigeria gained from skyrocketing oil price would have been employed to build infrastructures, create jobs and reduce poverty.

    “We note how the party has been promoting a bizarre corruption complex, which has seen Nigeria broke just two months after oil price started a free fall.

    “We had raised alarm that the PDP was raiding the excess crude account and other savings that would have helped us withstand the present economic shock.

    “We note that the so-called austerity measures the PDP government has rolled out said nothing about the gargantuan fonts of corruption the government has been nurturing since it came to power.

    “We know that majority of Nigerians make nothing out of the so-called austerity measures since millions of Nigerians have been subjected to endless austerity for most of their lives.

    “Lagos APC believes that what is happening now warns the good people of Lagos against the PDP and its set of desperate day dreamers who have been dreaming of taking over Lagos.”

  • APC rallies members in Enyimba City

    APC rallies members in Enyimba City

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Southeast held an impressive unity rally in Aba, the economic hub of Abia State, reports SUNNY NWANKWO

    Unlike the cloudy and rainy weather which   characterised other days of the week, the Enyimba City was very dry and pleasant on the rally day. There was free vehicular and human traffic on the major roads. Supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) trooped into the city from the 17 local government areas of the state and other neighbouring states. Traders locked up their shops and headed for the rally ground eager to hear the message of change that the party was bringing to them.

    There was a delay in the programme as a police patrol team restricted early callers from the venue. This was later resolved by the party officials at about 2:00pm and the gate of the Aba Recreation Club was flung open. Over 10,000 APC supporters from the state and beyond were at the venue.

    Among the early chieftains of the party to the venue were Sam Nkire, Chief Okey Nwagbara (APC Vice Chairman, Abia Central), Rt. Hon. Stanley Ugochukwu Ohajuruka (Ikwuano/Umuahia House of Reps aspirant), Hon. Obioma Iheanacho (Abia Central Senatorial District aspirant), Chief Nyerere Anyim and Nath Ikeocha (Abia governorship aspirants) and other state and national officials of the party.

    They were later joined by Chief Osita Izunaso, APC National Organising Secretary, Chief George Moghalu, Emma Enukwu, Hon. John Egbuta, Enyi. C. Enyi, Hon. Onyemaobi, Senator Chris Ngige and Imo State Governor Rochas Anayo Okorocha whose entrance triggered wild jubilation among party members and supporters who were happy to have the chairman of APC Governors’ Forum in their midst.

    The organisers of the rally who spoke exclusively to The Nation said that the event was to assure the members across the 17 local government areas of the state that peace has returned to the party after many months of internal bickering, adding that the turnout was a tip of the iceberg compared to what will happen when the party hosts a state rally soon.

    The chairman of the state APC Hon. Donatus Nwankpa expressing his happiness over the large turnout of people said “We didn’t expect to witness this kind of crowd. Some people chartered buses on their own and from the turnout, you will agree with me that the of people the state are tired of the PDP led administration in Abia State and that they are desirous of a change in the way things were done in the state.

    “I can assure you that whatever the PDP administration has failed to provide for Abians will be provided by an APC-led government in 2015.

    “This rally marks the starting point for our movements and actions towards the 2015 election. That is why we called it unity rally, because the rally is designed to bring all groups together to embrace the spirit of peace, love, unity and for the purpose of working as a united front ahead of the 2015 election in the state and the country at large.

    “There was a period of disagreement and within that period of disagreement a lot things happened. The aggrieved members have agreed to sheathe their swords and come together to work for the party’s common goal.

    “The major aim of the party is to give Abians and indeed Nigerians a purposeful leadership, and how do you show leadership? It is when we show some discipline and that discipline is what has come to reign in the party now.

    “The national has come here and conducted election to conclude the inconclusive congress that took place in the state sometime ago which resulted in a lot of grievances and from what is happening now the people at the other side of the divide (factional group) are part of the people that formed the harmonised state structure of which I am the chairman.

    “Chief Okey Nwagbara, the zonal Chairman of the party in Abia Central, my deputy, the Publicity Secretary of the party among other state officers at present were formerly at the other divides, but now we have all come together as a block for the interest of Abians and the party because the party is supreme.

    “So, the interest of the party which represents the interest of the collective wish of the people is what has taken place and the overriding factor today is on our desire to change the bad and maladministration that has bedridden Abia for many, many years now,” APC state chairman stated.

    A chieftain of the party in the state and former Abia State House of Assembly Speaker, Rt. Hon. Stanley Ohajuruka said he was happy that the stormy weather in the party has been calmed and thanked Abians for their support and the faith they have on the party.

    Ohajuruka said that the APC was coming to bring the needed change in the state which he said would in turn place the state on the same pace with other APC governed states where the state governors have exceptionally transformed their states.

    Chief Okey Nwagbara, APC Vice Chairman Abia Central, thanked the national leaders of the party for mediating in the crisis that bedeviled the party in the state in the past and expressed optimism that today’s (Friday) rally would set the springboard through which the party would capture the seat of power in the state in 2015.

    Nwagbara however called on Abians and APC supporters to turn out in their numbers in today’s event to embrace the change the APC was bringing to the state.

    Earlier in his speech, the governor of Imo State and one of the presidential hopefuls of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Owelle Rochas Okorocha lamented the ugly and deplorable state PDP led government has left the state and the country and assured Abians that the party would correct such anomalies come 2015 when they produced the next governor of the state.

    According Owelle, “APC is not only going to be the solution to the problems of Abia State alone in 2015, but to the country at large”, stressing that the worst candidate in APC is better than the best PDP candidate.

    On his presidential aspirations, the presidential hopeful said that he was in the race to represent the interest of the ibos who according to him have been relegated behind in the scheme of things in the country by the President Jonathan’s led administration.

    To prove his point, Okorocha listed the absence of an Igbo representative(s) in some of the key and sensitive positions in the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration said it was an intentional act by the PDP leadership to sideline the ibos and make them irrelevant.

    On the insinuations that the party is anti-igbo, the governor of Imo State said “You should ignore the insinuations that APC is a non-Igbo party. If that is the case why do personalities like me, Ogbonaya Onu, Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige, Senator Osita Izunaso among others in the party? I was the person that gave the party its name. APC is a party for a new Nigeria. It is for the good of the Igbos. PDP has made enough mockery of the Igbo man. All of us are witnesses of how PDP messed up with our brothers; Vincent Ogbulafor, Chuba Okadigbo, Evan Enwerem among others. There is no Igbo man as heads of Customs, Civil Defence, Immigrations, Army and among others in the present PDP government.

    “They will tell us that the President is our brother and I want to tell you that that is not true. Look at the state of Aba-Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway. Look at the state of Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene Expressway. What about the Aba-Ikot Ekpene Expressway. A government that claims to have the interest of the Igbos at heart has tactically shut down the economy of the southeast. Cameroonians and other neighbouring African countries are no longer coming to Aba to patronise traders because they can no longer have access to our markets. Is there anything more anti-Igbo than this?

    “There is no hope for the Igbo man in PDP and that is why we must vote them out come 2015. Any Igbo man in PDP is there for his personal aggrandizement and not for the interest of our people. PDP government has nothing to show for in the last 8 years. I am, going there as a presidential aspirant to represent the interest of the Igbo community,” he assured.

    Senator Chris Ngige who could not hide his dissatisfactions over the deplorable nature of infrastructure in the Enyimba city opined that only an APC government in the state would right the wrongs of the PDP government.

    “On my way from Port Harcourt to Aba, it is only in Aba that I saw heap of refuse. It is only in Aba that I encountered bad road. The state of infrastructure in the city that generates money for a state like Abia is so bad and that is what a PDP government can give to Abians. We are going to sweep them (PDP) out of office come 2015 and how are we going to do that, it is by paying them back in their own coins and punishing them through our votes in 2015.

    “We are going to replicate such infrastructural development witnessed in other APC controlled states of Lagos, Edo, Imo and among others in Abia State when an APC government come on board. It is in your (Abians) hands to bring this change and you must do it by voting into power an APC government with your votes. Your votes should reflect your unhappiness about the state of development in your state,” Ngige advised.

  • Delta APC endorses Emerhor

    Delta APC endorses Emerhor

    THE Delta State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) executives yesterday at Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State, called for the adoption of one of the party’s governorship aspirants, Chief O’tega Emerhor for next year’s election.

    The motions for the adoption were moved by the ward, local government and three senatorial districts’ executives from Delta North, South and Central.

    The party chiefs said they arrived at the decision after examining Emerhor’s achievements.

    The motion was earlier moved by the Bomadi Local Government Area’s APC Chairman Amabiri Paul Azorbo and seconded by Uzezi Akugha, the legal adviser for Isoko South Local Government Area, in Delta South.

    Others from Delta North and Central, who also moved the motion were: Mr. Felix Nwakoh, APC Chairman in Ika Northeast Local Government Area and seconded by Emma Chukwurah, from Oshimili South Local Government Area and Grant Okpako, APC chairman in Okpe Local Government Area.

  • Jonathan using Boko Haram for hidden agenda – APC

    Jonathan using Boko Haram for hidden agenda – APC

    … Party holds ‘salvation rally’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday held a salvation rally in Abuja and accused President Goodluck Jonathan of allegedly using Boko Haram insurgency for a hidden agenda to win 2015 presidential 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 Presidency to corrupt the system and disenfranchised voters in APC-controlled states.

    It queried why the recent collection of Permanent Voters Cards and continuous registration in 12 states of the federation was a fiasco.

    It asked the government and INEC to explain why the PVC exercise 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 Jonathan might be unable to organize a free and fair election come February 2015.

    The party said the President was also planning to use the extension of the emergency rule as excuse not to conduct the 2015 poll in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States.

    It protested the inadequate funding of the Federation Account, saying it was a ploy to starve APC controlled states of funds.

    Besides the rally, 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 North-East.

    The position of the APC was made known by the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun in an address at the commencement of a Salvation Rally at the Eagle’s Square in Abuja.

    He said the party has tabled four demands which the President must address immediately.

    He said the rally was a demonstration of the party’s lack of confidence in Jonathan’s administration.

    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 organize 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 fully 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 sect 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 several times only to cage the civil populace so that the insurgents can have a free rein?”