A
combined team of security operatives including soldiers and riot
policemen on Thursday stopped the leaders of the All Progressives
Congress from gaining entrance to the headquarters of the Independent
National Electoral Commission in Abuja.
The leaders were on a peaceful protest
march against the commission’s handling of the November 16 Anambra State
governorship election and other forms of electoral irregularities in
the country.
As early as 8.30 am, members of the
party across the states had converged on its new secretariat in Wuse 2
in the Federal Capital Territory where a strategic meeting which lasted
over three hours was held ostensibly to map out ways to go about the
planned protest.
Although none of the rebel governors was
present, the APC leaders took to the streets and embarked on a walk
protest to INEC’s office in Maitama Distict.
They however met a stiff resistance from
stern-looking security operatives from a combined team of the police,
army, State Security Services and the Nigerian Security and Civil
Defence Corps.
An Armoured Personnel Carrier with
Registration Number NPF 6359 C measuring about 40 feet long was used to
barricade the entrance to the commission’s office, while the driver of
the truck (a police officer, with the rank of an Assistant
Superintendent of Police) was pelted with sachets of pure water by the APC youths.
But despite this resistance, the party members stole the show and left their message.
Those in attendance at the protest march
included the party’s national leader and a former Governor of Lagos
State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; a
former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd); ex- Governor of
Ekiti State, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; a former member of the House of
Representatives and Executive Secretary of Anti-Corruption Network,
Otunba Dino Melaye; and former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun
Osoba.
Others are a former Governor of Zamfara
State, Senator Sani Yerima; a former national Chairman of the All
Nigeria Peoples Party, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu; a former Minister of the
Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai; Senator Oluremi
Tinubu; a member of the House of Representatives, Ms. Abike Dabiri;
Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajiabiamila;
Mr. Pally Iriase, among others.
In their separate speeches, Akande,
Tinubu; Onu and Buhari demanded the sacking of INEC Chairman, Prof.
Attahiru Jega with immediate effect because of his roles in the Oguta
election in Imo State and the recent Delta State senatorial election.
In his speech, Tinubu said the party leadership came “to serve warning signal to INEC.”
He said, “As an institution, INEC does
not represent the interest of Nigeria. They are all compromised
electoral officers. They have committed criminal offences by rigging
elections in Nigeria. The electoral commissioners represent 90 per cent
of card-carrying members of PDP. We are calling for the dissolution of
INEC immediately.
“With the amendment of the electoral
law, they have never complied with the Uwais report. They rig, after
rigging, because we condone them; they are used in sharing the election,
and for the promotion of corruption. We are rejecting in totality the
predetermined result of the rigging in Anambra State, the Delta State
Senatorial election and the Oguta House House of Assembly election. They
thought they would keep us lamenting. No, we are no more in
lamentation.”
Tinubu also told the police to beware.
“If the Nigeria Police have become the armed wing of the PDP, let us
know. That is the way you are behaving. If the Nigerian Army is now
demonstrating their patriotic sense to only one party, they should serve
us notice and let us know. This nonsense must stop. APC will stop the
rigging. From now on, you must rig and roast. God bless Nigeria.”
According to Buhari, APC’s letter to
INEC was the party’s demand to the institution to “do away with the
election in Anambra State that was conducted and calling for the
cancellation of the election totally and fixing of another day for the
election.”
For Akande, the letter was APC’s protest against the rigging of Anambra State election.
He said, “We are against the rigging of
Delta State senatorial election. We are against the rigging of Oguta
House of Assembly election. And our coming is to ask Nigerians to
support us to stop rigging in Nigeria. There is poverty in Nigeria
because of fraud.
Onu said, “The APC will put an end to
this. We need free and fair elections in our county. Why is PDP afraid
of free and fair elections? Why are they afraid of the people?”
The APC in its letter to INEC chairman
signed by Akande stated that prior to the date for the Anambra State
governorship election, “the ominous signs of an election that was
pre-determined to favour specific interests against the wish of the
electorate were already clear.”
The APC therefore demanded “an outright
cancellation of the Anambra election, having been marred by serious
irregularities and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.”
The party also called on INEC to, among
others, “discard the present fake multiple voter registers and produce
one authentic voter register that will not disenfranchise any voter and
be published 30 days before any election can take place in Anambra
State.”
PUNCH
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