 |
| Kola Ologbondiyan |
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organization
(PPCO) on Sunday called on the National Peace Committee (NPC), the
United Nations and all world leaders to save the nation from imminent
collapse by immediately call on President Muhammadu Buhari to order, if
Nigeria must have peaceful, free, fair and credible general elections in
February.
The campaign organisation, which stated that President Buhari will
not be the first President to be defeated in an election, added that it
has put the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) on notice over the use of
Police to clamp down on opposition figures.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja at a press conference, PPCO Director of
Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan, said that there will not be free
and fair election with Amina Zakari in Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC).
“President Buhari’s insistence on having his relation in charge of
collation of Presidential election results is completely provocative, a
direct affront to the sensibilities of Nigerians and express invitation
to crisis of epic proportion, which is capable of truncating the entire
electoral process and derailing our hard-earned democracy.
“We want the National Peace Committee and the entire world to know
that as long as Amina Zakari is in INEC, a peaceful election is not
guaranteed because she has the mandate to abuse the process and this
will not be accepted by Nigerians,” he said.
Insisting that President Buhari has been overheating the polity,
Ologbondiyan pointed out that the President is trying to derail the
electoral process having realised that he cannot win the forthcoming
election.
“We want the whole world to know that Nigeria is in a perilous time.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s desperation for self-succession has become
the major threat to our national unity, stability and peaceful electoral
process.
“Having realized that Nigerians are rallying behind our candidate,
Atiku Abubakar, as their next President, the Buhari Presidency is now
seeking ways to enmesh the electoral process in crisis.
“The Buhari Presidency has been overheating the polity with its
unending manipulations of INEC, muzzling of free speech and escalated
clampdown on opposition and Civil Society Organizations and we insist
that such must stop if we must have a peaceful election.
“The PPCO insists that there is no way peace can be guaranteed
without a free and fair election. Already, Nigerians across the board
are livid with anger over the foisting of Mrs. Amina Zakari, President
Buhari’s relation, to head the collation of Presidential election
results,” he said.
The party spokesman explained that majority of Nigerians and over 90
percent of the political parties in the election, as well as major
political and socio-cultural groups across the country have rejected
Mrs. Amina Zakari and also called for her resignation from INEC, adding
that “yet President Buhari is insisting on her stay in the commission.
“Our party is aware of plots by the Buhari Presidency to use Amina
Zakari, who has been mentioned as part of those involved in the rigging
of 2018 governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states, to plunge the
2019 general elections into controversies, truncate the flow of results
and even render elections in some critical states inconclusive, to pave
way for allocation of fictitious votes to President Buhari and the APC.”
The PPCO Director of Media and Publicity called on
the National Peace Committee to immediately speak out on the impropriety
of having Amina Zakari in INEC as well as insist on her removal so that
“we can have a credible and peaceful Presidential election.”
Ologbondiyan further noted that peaceful election cannot be
guaranteed as long as the Buhari Presidency continues to besiege,
harass, intimidate, unleash violence and provocative acts of
totalitarianism against opposition figures and persons perceived to be
against President Buhari’s self-succession bid.
Ologbondiyan, particularly, mentioned the cases of Senator Dino
Melaye and Deji Adeyanju who are allegedly being hounded for their
outspokenness against the alleged misrule of the Buhari Presidency.
Pointing out that the aim of the government is to to return the
nation to the nightmares of 1984, Ologbondiyan said that it is
preposterous for anybody, no matter how highly placed, to think that PDP
and its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar can be subdued out of
the political space in the country.
“Our party is courageously going into the general elections with the
support of overwhelming majority of Nigerians and they are not ready to
accept any result that does not reflect their already expressed wishes
and aspirations,” Ologbondiyan said.
Reacting to the alleged comment of Minister of Transportation and
Director General of All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaign Council,
Rotimi Amaechi on Buhari’s government, Ologbondiyan said what he said
was just a demonstration about the lies, deception, contraverses and
beguilement that APC deployed in winning the 2015 election.
He said: Talking of the audio tape making the round in social media
concerning the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi, I think has a
huge responsibility to defend himself, but if his principal, President
Buhari feels that the tape is normal, it is not our business in PDP.
“What is out in the public domain, is just a demonstration to
Nigerians about the lies, deception, contraverses, beguilement that APC
deployed in winning the 2015 election. They have no plans, no agenda in
whatever form as far as governance is concern for Nigerians. And if one
of their own inner cancus has come out to say that this is what we say,
it is not within the purview of PDP to rise in defence of Amaechi.”
Meanwhile, Nigerian Women and Youth Groups, under Accord Women &
Youth Initiative, has condemned and rejected the appointment of Amina
Zakari as Chairman of the National Collation Centre Committee of INEC.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, the Executive Director of the groups,
Esther Opaluwah, recalled that INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has
consistently maintained that he is committed to conducting a credible,
free and fair election, “hence we expect nothing less than transparency
and neutrality from INEC.
“Mrs Amina Zakari who is not only a blood relative of the incumbent,
President Mohammadu Buhari, but also married to the APC senatorial
candidate of Bauchi South. Therefore, by consaiguinity and affinity, her
hands are tied.
“Mrs Amina Zakari has repeatedly failed the neutrality and impartial
test especially on her antecedents in the immediate past elections in
the South West where she was in charge of Electoral Operations and
Logistics.
“We the Nigerian women and youths are not satisfied with her conduct
as INEC Commissioner and this is rubbing off negatively on the integrity
of the electoral processes.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Disclaimer: Comment expressed do not reflect the opinion of African Parliamentary News