The plot continued to thicken for a
postponement of the elections on Tuesday,
when 16 out of the 26 registered political
parties endorsed calls for a shift of dates for
the polls slated for February 14 and 28,
citing insecurity, issues with the distribution
of permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) and the
exodus of people from the cities to their
villages.
Also, five of the 14 presidential candidates
signed a statement urging the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) to
postpone the elections to a more appropriate
date.
The parties are the United Democratic Party
(UDP), Citizen Peoples Party (CPP), Peoples
Party of Nigeria (PPN), Action Alliance (AA),
Peoples Democratic Congress (PDC), Allied
Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Labour Party (LP),
Mega Progressive People's Party (MPPP),
United Party of Nigeria (UPN), Alliance for
Democracy (AD), African Democratic
Congress (ADC), Advanced Congress of
Democrats (ACD), Democratic Peoples Party
(DPP), New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP),
Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) and
Independent Democrat (ID).
The five presidential candidates who
endorsed the postponement are Godson
Okoye (UDP), Chief Sam Okoye (CPP), Prince
C.O Allagoe (PPN), Tunde Anifowose (AA)
and Ganiu Galadima (ACPN).
The political parties, in a resolution calling
for the postponement, said: “Fellow
Nigerians, we the concerned leaders of
political parties, in the run up to the 2015
February general election, have observed
some dangerous trends, which if not checked
may negatively and adversely affect our
democracy.”
The parties hinged their call for the
postponement on security, distribution of
PVCs and people deserting their residences
for their villages.
They also threatened to boycott the elections
if their position was not respected.
The leaders of the 16 parties called on the
federal government to take the necessary
steps to provide adequate security for
Nigerians to go out and collect their PVCs in
order to be able to exercise their civic and
constitutional duty.
The parties said INEC should seriously
consider shifting the date of elections to
sometime in March or April, which would still
not be against the provisions of Sections 25
and 26 of the Electoral Act.
“We are not urging INEC to do anything that
is unlawful, illegal or unconstitutional. It is
unfortunately becoming clear by the day that
most Nigerians appear not to be ready for
election but are ready for violence,” the
parties said.
On what the shift in date would achieve, the
parties said: “This shift in date, which does
not in any way contravene the provisions of
Section 25 and 26 of the Electoral Act will
afford INEC enough time to distribute the
remaining PVCs so that at least more than
98 per cent of the registered voters in the
country would have collected their PVCs.
“In this regard the concerned political leaders
should offer to assist the INEC in all
necessary ways to ensure that these PVCs
are collected on time for the rescheduled
election.”
One of the representatives of the political
parties said they took the decision against
the position of the chairman of Inter-party
Advisory Council (IPAC).
According to him, the IPAC Chairman, Dr.
Tanko Yunusa, had overruled them at the last
meeting with INEC. The party chieftain
alleged that because the IPAC chairman has
an alliance with the All Progressives
Congress (APC), he insisted that the elections
must hold as scheduled.
Okoye, who read the statement on behalf of
the political parties, also expressed
disappointment over the visit of the US
Secretary of State, John Kerry, to only two
presidential candidates and that the
presidential debate centred on the APC
presidential candidate, Major-General
Muhammadu Buhari and Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) presidential candidate, President
Goodluck Jonathan.
However, the presidential candidate of the
United Progressive Party, Chief Chekwas
Okorie, has condemned the call for the
postponement of the elections.
Briefing journalists in Abuja, Okorie said: “I
condemn in the strongest terms the recent
mischievously contrived clamour for the
postponement of the 2015 general election to
another date outside the dates and timetable
announced by the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) in February
2014, over twelve months ago.
“The reasons given by the proponents of the
postponement that a great number of
Nigerians will be disenfranchised having not
been given their permanent voters’ cards
which will enable them to participate in the
election is a contrived reason and to a large
extent pedestrian.
“As we speak, over 80 per cent of registered
voters have received their PVCs, according to
the latest figures released by INEC and this
may increase to 90 per cent or above after
the close of distribution of PVCs on February
8, 2015, as planned by INEC.”
Also kicking against the postponement of the
polls, the APC yesterday warned of a plot by
President Goodluck Jonathan and his party,
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to
precipitate a constitutional crisis that would
forestall the elections this month and pave
the way for an interim government.
This idea, the APC alleged, would be
broached tomorrow by the president at the
Council of State meeting in Abuja, urging the
elder statesmen (Nigerian ex-presidents and
heads of state) to live up to their billings.
The party alleged that some elements in the
country were trying to manipulate the courts
and tribunals to achieve the devilish plot.
APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, told reporters in Lagos that the
agents of darkness may procure “pliant
judges” to give outrageous and unpopular
judgments at the election tribunals and
courts to destabilise the polity.
He warned that any outrageous and
unpopular judgment would trigger massive
violence, which they would cite as an excuse
to scuttle the elections and form an interim
government.
Mohammed said: “At the last count, six cases
had been filed by the agents of those working
to scuttle the elections, and we expect more.
In one of the cases, Justice Ademola of the
Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday gave
the order for a substituted service in the case
instituted by Max Uzoaka against our
candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
“The Jonathan administration and the PDP
do not want elections despite their deceitful
statements that they are ready for the polls,
and they will stop at nothing to ensure that
the polls do not hold as scheduled, if at all.
“This is why they have not been asking
Nigerians to go and collect their PVCs, even
when the INEC has said the cards for all
registered voters are now ready for collection,
putting a lie to the campaign that the cards
will not be ready before the elections.
“That is why they have refused hordes of
foreign journalists visas to come to Nigeria.
The denial of visas to foreign journalists is
systemic, aimed at preventing the
international community from seeing or
watching the desperate plots to scuttle the
elections.
“An administration that has nothing to hide
will not embark on a deliberate move to shut
foreign journalists out of what is definitely
one of the most important elections in the
world this year.”
Mohammed alleged that apart from
manipulating the courts, unpatriotic elements
have resorted to lobbying some members of
the Council of State to support their clamour
for election postponement.
He urged the council, which is expected to
meet tomorrow, to put the national interest
above narrow, partisan considerations by
rejecting the calls for postponement.
Mohammed also urged local and foreign
observers to take note of the scheming by the
election-postponement campaigners, adding
that if they succeed, they would have no
elections to observe.
He said since the elections are a process and
not restricted to the election day, all the
steps leading to the elections are as
important as the actual voting.
“We call on Nigerians to remain vigilant,
especially in the days ahead, and to continue
to reject all attempts by anti-democratic
forces to cling to or get power through
means that are not democratic.
“We urge our members and supporters in
particular to eschew violence under any guise,
even in the face of the most egregious
provocations, so as not to play into the
hands of those working to scuttle the
elections.
“If the Jonathan administration and the PDP
are indeed committed to the February 14 and
28 dates for the elections, as they have said,
we challenge them to heed our call for a two-
day public holiday so that working class
Nigerians who have yet to collect their PVCs
can do so. By the way, APC states will
declare two public holidays for this purpose.
“We will also like to repeat our appeal to the
judiciary to act as a bulwark against any
attempt to truncate our nation’s hard-earned
democracy by refusing to be used to scuttle
the elections.
“We consider it an insult to the judiciary for
the advocates of election-shift to believe they
can use their dirty funds to influence the
course of justice. We believe the judiciary will
not take this bait.
“We will not relent in speaking out against
ongoing efforts to scuttle the elections. The
APC is ready for the elections as scheduled.
The PDP and the Jonathan administration
should stop their scheming and get
themselves ready for the elections too.
Nigerians have seen through them and have
rejected their evil plots.
“The elections dates of February 14 and 28
are sacrosanct,” he said
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