The Nation Newspaper

Tag: charade

  • APC convention a charade, mockery of democracy – PDP

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described yesterday’s national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a charade, a mockery of democracy and assault on the sensibility of Nigerians.

    The party said there was open intimidation and physical assault on aspirants and delegates to the convention, which it said, further confirmed the desperation by President Muhammadu Buhari’s camp to seize the APC’s presidential ticket.

    In a statement yesterday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the opposition party said the APC resorted to imposing of pliable officials who had been handed the directives to muzzle other presidential aspirants in the APC ahead of the party’s presidential primaries.

    The statement said, “Delegates and other members of the APC were horrified when aspirants to various party offices were being threatened, harassed and in some cases, paid and handed written orders to mount the stage and announce their withdrawal for aspirants listed by President Buhari, under heavy security presence.

    “Nigerians are invited to note that some of the officials preferred, particularly, the National Chairman, are individuals overburdened by heavy corruption allegations, and whose expected investigation and prosecution have been traded for a Presidential ticket for President Buhari.

    “The world observed with shock how aspirants and delegates who dared to raise questions were manhandled by thugs and intimidated by security operatives.

    “It is instructive to state that the APC convention directly reflects the confusion, intimidations, violations and descent to fascism that have characterized governance in our nation in the last three years.

    “President Buhari’s handlers are aware that due to his poor performance, clinching his party’s presidential ticket under a free, fair and credible primary is impossible, hence this resort to intimidation, coercion and escalation of official hooliganism in the APC.

     

     

    “While we urge Nigerians and the international community to mark the desperation in Mr. President’s camp, for which they are bent at destroying our democracy, it is clear that with the character, personality and outlook of the incoming national executive of the APC, the party has been finally sunk by President Buhari and his power hungry cabal”.

     

  • Endorsement of El-Rufai a charade, says Sani

    Endorsement of El-Rufai a charade, says Sani

    The senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, yesterday faulted the reported endorsement of Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai for a second term by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Sani, who chairs the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, described the endorsement as a charade that cannot stand.

    The lawmaker said El-Rufai gathered his employees, aides and hangers-on to actualise his endorsement for second term.

    He alleged that because the chances of El-Rufai becoming vice-president, which he was aiming for while President Muhammadu Buhari was away on medical treatment, had failed with the return of the President, the Kaduna governor had taken up another project for Buhari.

    He said El-Rufai’s name dropping and mobilisation for President Buhari for 2019 was self-serving, adding that his loyalty to the President is questionable.

    Sani said: “The so-called endorsement of Governor El-Rufai by Kaduna APC amounts to endorsement of toxic waste.

    “El-Rufai simply gathered his employees, aides and hangers-on to endorse him.

    “He is a poisonous viper corrosive to the integrity and moral standing of the party in the state and the nation.

    “El-Rufai’s name dropping and mobilisation for Buhari 2019 is self-serving. His loyalty to Buhari is for political relevance and his allegiance to Buhari is for self-protection and preservation.

    “Now that President Buhari is back from health vacation and the chances of becoming a vice-president is zero, El-Rufai has taken up a new project for Buhari 2019.

    “El-Rufai’s obsession with Buhari is not about Buhari, but about himself. Buhari should protect his testicles from a man who always bends close to his knees.

    “Those who endorsed El-Rufai are marketing a bottled fart. A man who boasts of sending Yar’Adua to his grave should not be trusted by Buhari. The snake that killed the hunter can kill the charmer.”

  • The charade in Osun

    SIR: I wish to bring to the attention of the Speaker of Osun State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Nojeem Folasayo Salaam, and the honourable members of the House, to the charade going on in the name of a petition from one Justice Olamide F. Oloyede against Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

    It is in the public domain that her petition has been sent to the governor and for which he has responded. The House has also constituted a panel to look into her petition, invite her and the governor and make recommendations to the house.

    This whole exercise is a huge charade and an injustice to the governor. The governor has a state-wide overwhelming mandate which he received from the governorship election of August 9, 2014 and which has just been validated by the Supreme Court. He is therefore not answerable to her and her petition which emanated from malice and ill-will. Why then should the governor be subjected to this ordeal? Is it because she is a judge? Where is the separation of powers? Lawmakers should not be brow-beaten by a judge who has clearly overstepped her bounds. They constitute the second arm of government. They should call her bluff.

    Her petition should have been dismissed long ago; instead, she should be the one answering charges for bringing the judiciary to disrepute. It is never heard that a sitting judge will write a petition against a governor. It is the height of judicial recklessness. They should not entertain this lawlessness. Judges and lawyers in Osun are outraged by her action while the generality of the people are bewildered by her brazenness and indiscretion. If anyone therefore should be on trial, it should be her, not the governor.

    I hope also that the Osun State Judicial Council and the National Judicial Council will arrest this cancer before it spreads to the entire judicial body.

     

    • Mike Ogundele,

    Osogbo, Osun State

  • ACN elders: Ondo election was a charade

    Elders of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) under the aegis of Ondo Opinion Leaders (OOL), yesterday described the October 20 governorship election as a charade.

    It said the outcome of the election would remain unacceptable to a majority of the electorate.

    Speaking with reporters, OOL Chairman Dr. Akerele Adu said: “There were allegations of the purchase of voter cards, as well as the printing and thumb-printing of ballot papers before the election.

    “Therefore, the election result is a fraud. It is not a true reflection of the wishes of Ondo people.

    “We, therefore, pledge our solidarity and support to our national leaders, our governorship candidate Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and his running mate, Dr. Paul Akintelure, in whatever action they deem fit to redress the injustice done to our party and to the good people of Ondo State.

    “We implore our supporters across the state and in the diaspora to remain calm, not to be discouraged by the result of the election and to be assured that the OOL will not allow the injustice to be swept under the carpet. The law will take its full course to right the wrongs at the appropriate time and at the appropriate court.”

    Present at the news conference were Prince Lanre Atanlogun, Prof. R. Akinfaderin, Mr. Tunde Okolu, Mr. Yomi Meroyi, Mr. Eyitayo Ogunleye, Mrs. Titilope Oparinde, Mr. Sunday Omokisun, Alhaja Fausat Kazeem and Mr. Niyi Oluwatosin.

  • Ondo poll was an ‘organised charade’, says PDP

    The Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described last Saturday’s governorship election in the state as “a mere organised charade”.

    In a statement by Dr. Dare Bada, the Director-General of the Olusola Oke Campaign Organisation, the party said: “The election was not only marred by irregularities and corruption, it has failed to reflect the true desires of the people of Ondo State who were looking forward to October 20 with high hope of bringing an end to deceit, waste, corruption and rudderless leadership.”

    It said it was disappointed by “the top-level strategic manipulation that swung the poll in favour of the Labour Party’s (LP’s) candidate, Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

    PDP said: “We are convinced and we say this to the whole world that the factors leading to this tragic experience were well known to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security forces, LP and the Ondo State government beforehand.

    “In our humble view and from evidence at our disposal, the election was a mere organised charade, as its outcome, as announced by INEC, was absolutely predetermined and predesigned.”

    The party decried the flurry of congratulatory messages that greeted the declaration of Mimiko as the winner of the election.

    It said: “It is embarrassing and regrettable that organised institutions and key personalities, who were not only absent during the election but who were also oblivious of the facts of the exercise, rushed to the media to congratulate the purported winner and attempted to give him and the flawed electoral process undue credibility.

    “The curious way and the manner of the emergency congratulatory messages, particularly by those who should know better, indicate their predetermined notion of where victory should go.”

    PDP said it is analysing and collating reports of “massive irregularities and pervading non-compliance that characterised the entire process” and will soon shock those celebrating “this heavily flawed election.”