FG Plotting To Scuttle Elections – APC

The All Progressive Congress has again raised the alarm that
President Goodluck Jonathan is plotting to thwart the February
14 election by forcing a constitutional crisis, according to
Vanguard.
The APC through it National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, made this known in Lagos in Today, February 3, at
a press briefing. Below are excerpts from the press briefing.
Good afternoon gentlemen and welcome to this press
conference
During my last press conference on January 29th, I alerted the
nation to the fact that the advocates of the postponement of this
month’s general elections have resorted to using the courts to
disqualify our presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari,
and scuttle the polls.
This followed the obvious failure of their clandestine campaign
to have the elections postponed ostensibly because of the poor
distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) by the
Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.
Despite sponsoring pseudo-experts and cash-and-carry analysts
to make the television rounds to canvass for the postponement
of the election, in addition to instigating protests against INEC,
Nigerians have rejected the call for election shift, which is a big
blow to those who want the elections postponed to give the
Jonathan Administration time to recover lost ground.
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The advocates of election shift may have retreated, but they
have not given up their push to scuttle the elections. In fact, a
conference organized on Monday to consider the effects of the
National Conference on the 2015 elections was turned into a
campaign for election postponement by the usual culprits.
The election-postponement campaigners have now returned to
the drawing board to plot another move to make sure the
elections do not hold, and that precisely is why we have called
this press conference.
Despite their defeat in the court of public of opinion, the no-
election proponents are now working hard on their back-up plan,
which is to force a constitutional crisis that will ultimately lead
to their goal: Interim Government!
And the courts and tribunals are the main tools to be used in
pursuing this devilish plot.
They have restrategised to procure ‘pliant judges’ to give
outrageous and unpopular judgement at election tribunals and
courts, judgement that are capable of destabilising the polity
Their hope is that such outrageous and unpopular judgement
will help trigger massive violence across the country, which they
will then leverage as an excuse to scuttle the elections and form
an Interim Government.
At the last count, six cases have 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
Make no mistake about it, 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 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. As we said earlier, 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.
In addition to using the courts, they have resorted to lobbying
some members of the Council of State to support their clamour
for election postponement. We hope the Council, which is due to
meet later in the week, will put national interest above narrow,
partisan considerations and reject the poisoned chalice of
election postponement.
Conclusion:
We call on local and international Observers to take note of the
scheming by the election-postponement campaigners. This is
because if they succeed, Observers will have no elections to
observe. We urge them to note that since election is a process,
and not restricted to election day alone, all the steps leading to
the elections are as important as the actual voting.itself.
Therefore, we implore them to take note of the systemic shutout
of foreign journalists from the forthcoming polls, which is a ploy
to shut out the international community from the elections..
We urge the Council of State not to allow itself to be used to
scuttle the forthcoming elections, because it is in the interest of
Nigeria and her people that the elections proceed as scheduled.
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 Feb. 14th and 28th 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.
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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.
On our part, 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 Feb. 14th and 28th are sacrosanct!
I thank you.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Lagos, Feb. 3rd 2015