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Tag: CNPP

  • CNPP seeks poll cancellation

    The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) in Akwa Ibom State has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the results of last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly election.

    In a letter addressed to INEC Chairman Prof. Atahiru Jega, the group said the election was conducted in a ‘shady, fraudulent, biased and undemocratic manner’.

    It said its position was based on observations, reports and facts from the field by their agents.

    The group claimed accreditation was not done on time; electoral officers failed to present materials for inspection, and that there were no result sheets in many units, and only a photocopy without INEC’s security seal, in most cases.

    CNPP said INEC in Akwa Ibom did not follow due process and in view of these, the Presidential and National Assembly should be cancelled and rescheduled.

     

     

  • Polls: CNPP makes case for police

    Five weeks to the presidential election, President Goodluck Jonathan is yet to release funds to the police for logistics, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has said.

    The CNPP, after an emergency meeting with top police officers in Abuja at the weekend, appealed to Jonathan to, “in the collective interest of our dear fatherland, fund the police forthwith to enable them fulfil their statutory role of protecting the electoral officials and their materials.

    “Imagine the mayhem, which will manifest at many polling centres and voting points if the police force is under-equipped,” it said.

    The coalition threatened to “embark on mass action if the police force is deliberately underfunded, especially as regards the elections”.

  • CNPP expresses outrage at security chiefs

    CNPP expresses outrage at security chiefs

    The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has expressed outrage at the submission of the security chiefs that they could not guarantee security for the general elections earlier planned for February 14.

    In a statement, its spokesman, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, said: “We are at a loss the mileage the security chiefs will cover between now and March 28 to crush the Bokom Haram, which warranted the shift of the February polls, or will the poll be shifted again, if the insurgency rages?

    “CNPP is making this assertion, based on our phobia of possible truncation of our fledgling democracy; for we witnessed firsthand how our member political parties, some of whom have no candidate for any parliamentary bid or governorship were manipulated and compromised by the presidency to support polls’ elongation.

    “We, however, commend the 21 Resident Electoral Commissioners and 12 political parties that opposed poll-tenure-elongation and pray that there is no further elongation: they should take solace on the truism that postponement of examinations cannot assist an indolent student.”

  • CNPP asks Dasuki to apologise to Nigerians

    CNPP asks Dasuki to apologise to Nigerians

    The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) yesterday accused the National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki of plans to scuttle the February 14 elections alongside the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Expressing outraged over the statement made by Dasuki at the London think-tank, Chatham House, calling for the postponement of the Feb 14 scheduled election, the CNPP asked the NSA to tender an unreserved apology to Nigerians.

    The political body described Dasuki’s reason as “childish, bare face lie and a dummy meant to deceive the international community, portray Nigeria in bad light and scuttle regime change.”

    CNPP challenged Dasuki to tell the world where the 30 million permanent voters cards (PVC) “he bandied is located; for without holding brief for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it is common knowledge that over 60 per cent of the PVCs have been collected nationwide by anxious Nigerians who earnestly yearn for regime change.”

    In a statement issued in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of CNPP, Osita Okechukwu, said: “CNPP is worried that the NSA has joined some anti-democrats and less than patriotic groups like the Pastor Ayo Oristejafor brand of Christian Association of Nigeria, the Ijaw Youth Council, Federation of Middle Belt People and Ohaneze Youth Council to plant land mines to scuttle our fledgling democracy.

    “Dasuki’s statement clearly exposed his gross incompetence on his primary mandate to secure the country; hence the Boko Haram insurgency has escalated since his appointment on 22nd June, 2012.

    “The NSA should tell the world what happened to the billions budgeted for defence in the past three years under his watch, since he has turned the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) into procurement agency of the Ministry of Defence.

    “Our understanding is that elongation of President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure automatically elongates that of Dasuki’s less than successful tenure.

    “A man who deliberately abandoned the late General Andrew Azazi’s concept, that Boko Haram insurgents are located in the forest and should be fought with Isreali satellite images, drones and modern equipment. Had Dasuki adopted the Azazi concept, it could have been very easy to use satellite images to recapture the Chibok girls few days after their unfortunate abduction.

    “Is it not a paradox that an NSA who procures equipment via the black market is condemning those who insist that the Nigerian armed forces are under-equipped and under-funded? Is it not corruption under Dasuki’s watch one of the reasons that made the Americans to stop supplying vital military equipment to Nigeria? We call on Dasuki to apologise to Nigerians for his anti-democratic tenure elongation canvas and for calling our soldiers he under-equipped cowards.”

  • CNPP, Momoh, others fault call for transition govt

    CNPP, Momoh, others fault call for transition govt

    THE National Publicity Secretary of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Osita Okechukwu, former Minister of Information Prince Tony Momoh and President of Nigeria Voters Assembly, Mashood Erubami, led some influential Nigerians yesterday to fault the call for the postponement of next month’s elections.

    The Convener of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), Pastor Tunde Bakare, who is also the general overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly Church, last weekend called for the postponement of the elections, saying the nation was not ready.

    Bakare called for the constitution of an interim government that would in turn organise future elections, saying such steps would help prevent the danger ahead.

    But, Momoh said the Federal Government must conduct the general election because the constitution did not provide for a transition government.

    According to the former minister, any suggestion that did not support the provision of the constitution cannot be used to prevent elections.

    Momoh said: “Anybody, who suggests what the constitution does not support is on his own. The constitution has provided guidelines to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the conduct of election.

    “The guideline is a very tight one. It is in view of that guideline that  the All Progressives Congress (APC) started its campaign yesterday in Port Harcourt. And in fact, we are covering Akwa Ibom and by the end of the week, we would have covered the whole of Southsouth and Southeast.”

    The APC chieftain said the party is ready for the coming election, adding: “The only thing is to appeal to INEC to ensure those who are qualified to vote are not disenfranchised because that is the beginning of rigging.

    “It also boils to the fact that every institution in the land should do its work properly. INEC should do its work, the police must do their work and other security agents must do their work without fear or favour and in accordance with the law that established them. If this is done, the election will be free and fair.”

    Okechukwu, who spoke during a telephone interview with The Nation in Abuja, said the reasons advanced by Bakare for the postponement could not outweigh  Nigerians’ readiness for the elections.

    He said: “Pastor Bakare got it wrong this time. All the indicators he cited as reasons for the postponement cannot outweigh Nigerians’ readiness for the  general elections.

    “The core ingredient of democracy is passing of referendum on the performance of the incumbent and the character of the challenger.

    “Nigerians are eager to vote out or vote back president, governors, legislators depending on their performance. Nigerians will frown at any shift of the election.”

    He said it was dangerous to call for the postponement and establishment of an interim government on the basis that INEC was not ready.

    The CNPP spokesman and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said: “Only God knows when INEC will be ready as envisaged by the man of God. Therefore, his reason cannot be sustained.

    “The beauty in our democracy is that it has reached the zenith of liberal democracy, where two parties dominate in a multi-party system, which means that there is mutual assured destruction. Neither PDP nor APC will rig at will.

    “The constitution he is talking about is a rigid constitution. He knows that four attempts have been made in the past to amend it without success. He also knows that his six months time-frame is not enough to amend the constitution.”

    To Erubami, the call was “a veiled attempt by its protagonist to create confusion and run away from fixing the identified national emergencies we are inundated with.”

    Erubami, who is also the former president of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), said those calling for a transition government only a few weeks before a general election were “stylishly calling for tenure elongation of the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.”

    The statement reads in part: “Democratic consolidation cannot be easily achieved by the preference of politicians who are inconsistent in their vision for deliberative politics and participatory democracy, believing that democracy can be achieved anyhow, as if towing democratic path does not matter.

    “Whereas, we cannot close our eyes to a change process that would bring into political office another set of unserious politicians in the name of national unity, who are not concerned with bad shape in which the Nigeria economy is and the deteriorating conditions under which the citizens sleep and wake up  daily, as a result of lack of foresight of ruling PDP government.

    “Calls for transitional government a few weeks to conducting  elections into various elective offices is a veiled attempt by its protagonist to create confusion and run away from fixing the identified national emergencies we are inundated with.”

  • Ogun CNPP urges electorate to get voter cards

    Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) Ogun State Chapter has called on the electorate in the state to turn out en-mass to collect their Permanent Voters Cards during the exercise holding in the state from November 7 to 9, 2014.

    The group made the plea in a statement issued in Abeokuta after the re-election of its state executive officers, comprising Otunba Owolabi Odebudo (Chairman); Mr. Bola Lawal J.P. (Secretary); Chief Gbolahan Idowu (Organising Secretary); Comrade Segun Olufemi (PRO) and Pastor Adio Odejide (Advisor).

    Also present at the re-election exercise was Oloye Adegboyega Adeniji, Secretary-General CNPP, South-West and Otunba Femi Soluade, BOT Chairman, Ogun CNPP.

    In his post-election speech, Otunba Odebudo appealed to eligible voters in the state not to disenfranchise themselves by ensuring that they turn out en-mass to obtain their permanent voter cards.

  • CNPP to INEC: emulate Brazilian election process

    CNPP to INEC: emulate Brazilian election process

    The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) urged yesterday the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to emulate the Brazilian Election Management for conducting seamless general elections on October 4.

    CNPP National Publicity Secretary Osita Okechukwu   said in a statement in Abuja: “It is worthy of emulation how seamlessly the Brazilian Election Management conducted the October 4 general elections for the election of president,  governors, national congress and state legislators all in one day.

    “In the poll, more than 80 per cent of Brazilian 142, 822, 046 registered voters voted, registering the highest voter turnout in any liberal democracy in recent times. The figures go thus-: Null Votes – 6,678,580, Blank Votes – 4,420,488 and Total Valid Votes – 104,023,543.

    “Our interest was elicited because the results were out in less than 48 hours and up to date no election tribunal was set up, the presidential candidates concurred with the October 26 runoff between Dilma Rousseff of the Workers Party (PT), who polled 43,267,668 votes, making 41.59 per cent and Aecio Neves of Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB), who polled 34,897,211 votes, making 33.5 per cent.

    “We also understand that Electronic Voting and E-Card reader mechanism were adopted in the conduct of the general elections. In our country, the narrative is some pundits repeating Senator David Mark’s goof, before the liberalisation of telephone in Nigeria that it is not for the poor. Nigeria, like Brazil, is a multi-cultural, heterogeneous, literate and illiterate, rural and urban and among the 10 most populated countries on earth.

    “CNPP therefore challenges the Prof. Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to study the procedure, processes, mechanisms and technology adopted by the Brazilian Election Management for a successful election.

    “It is our considered view that the transparency, fairness and credibility of the conduct of elections reinforces the trust and confidence of the electorate; hence maximising their electoral worth and value. This is what led to a large turnout of voters in Brazil.”

     

  • CNPP to INEC: emulate Brazil’s election process

    The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) urged yesterday the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to emulate the Brazilian Election Management, which conducted seamless general elections on October 4.

    CNPP’s National Publicity Secretary Osita Okechukwu   said in a statement in Abuja: “It is worthy of emulation how seamlessly the Brazilian Election Management conducted the October 4 general elections for the election of president,  governors, national congress and state legislators all in one day.

    “In the poll, more than 80 per cent of Brazilian 142, 822, 046 registered voters voted, registering the highest voter turnout in any liberal democracy in recent times. The figures go thus-: Null Votes – 6,678,580, Blank Votes – 4,420,488 and Total Valid Votes – 104,023,543.

    “Our interest was elicited because the results were out in less than 48 hours and up to date no election tribunal was set up, the presidential candidates concurred with the October 26 runoff between Dilma Rousseff of the Workers Party (PT), who polled 43,267,668 votes, making 41.59 per cent and Aecio Neves of Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB), who polled 34,897,211 votes, making 33.5 per cent.

    “We also understand that Electronic Voting and E-Card reader mechanism were adopted in the conduct of the general elections. In our country, the narrative is some pundits repeating Senator David Mark’s goof, before the liberalisation of telephone in Nigeria that it is not for the poor. Nigeria, like Brazil, is a multi-cultural, heterogeneous, literate and illiterate, rural and urban and among the 10 most populated countries on earth.

    “CNPP therefore challenges the Prof. Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to study the procedure, processes, mechanisms and technology adopted by the Brazilian Election Management for a successful election.

    “It is our considered view that the transparency, fairness and credibility of the conduct of elections reinforces the trust and confidence of the electorate; hence maximising their electoral worth and value. This is what led to a large turnout of voters in Brazil.”

     

  • APC chieftain laments son’s death

    National Publicity Secretary of Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), and South-East spokesman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu stated on Friday that medical doctors’s strike partly contributed to the death of his son.

    He spoke at the burial of his son, Matthias Koso Okechukwu at the weekend in his hometown, Eke, Enugu State.

    Matthias died on 10th August, as Consultant Pediatricians, were absent when  he was rushed to National Hospital Abuja.

  • CNPP berates SSS for querying ex-FCT minister

    CNPP berates SSS for querying ex-FCT minister

    The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) yesterday condemned the State Security Service (SSS) for questioning former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Nasir el-Rufai.

    The CNPP described the action as bias and unfair.

    It added that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, had made similar statements, like many notable Nigerians, who had not been summoned.

    The CNPP urged the SSS to “restrain in making mountains out of mole hills and embarking on selective amnesia, which casts our security agencies in partisan colours”.

    In a statement yesterday in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, the conference said: “The CNPP has read carefully the statement credited to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, in which he said there would be violence, if the 2015 elections are not credible, free and fair.

    “We are at a loss how this nimble conditional statement constitutes security threat and is rated weighty enough to attract the attention of the Directorate of State Service {DSS} to arrest him.

    “In our candid view, it smacks of selective justice and gives credence to the watch list, which former President Olusegun Obasanjo harped on in his letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “We hope we are not sliding back to the dark days of dictatorship, when a watch list would drift into a hit list!

     

    “Otherwise, what is harmful in the speech, when it sounds like a rapid response to the explosive pessimistic statement made by the Chief Electoral Officer of the federation, Prof Attahiru Jega, few days earlier that the 2015 elections will not be perfect? It’s a speech couched as if the hurdles before INEC are insurmountable and, therefore, a good excuse to rig the elections. Then argue after the havoc that ‘I told you before’.

    “Or, can we easily forget the explosive statements by the former governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, that stopping President Jonathan in 2015 will have grave consequences? Nor the ones by Alhaji Asari Dokubo and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, all President’s men?

    “Yet, we have no record that any of them has been hounded by the DSS.”