“More Nigerians Were Killed in The Last Four Years Than Ever Before”- Atiku

Speaking at the National Executive Council meeting of the People’s Democratic Party in Abuja on Tuesday, the party’s presidential flag bearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar averred that more Nigerians were killed in the last four years than ever before. He also stated that about 14 million more Nigerians became jobless as a result of what he called the “incompetence” of the All Progressives Congress.

Speaking on the postponement of the election, Atiku said “I am sure we can all relate to the losses and burden on our citizens who travelled to various destinations for the exercise.

This is in addition to the burden on election personnel willing to sacrifice in furtherance of our democracy”.

Noting that his party’s opponent “will stop at nothing to retain power”, Atiku said “our goal is not to gain power for our own sake, but for the people of our country who have been so hard hit by four years of APC cluelessness and incompetence.

Four years which have seen 14 million more of our people without jobs, more of our people killed than ever before and more of our people living in extreme poverty than any other nation on this planet.

Let us not forget that in the last three years of the last PDP administration, Nigeria had become the largest economy in Africa and in each of those years, we had the fastest growth rate in our continent.

And so true to our values and commitment to chart a new path for our beloved country, our campaigns have been issues based, offering Nigerians hope for a better tomorrow; while demanding free, fair, transparent and credible elections from the government”.

While explaining why he feels Nigeria’s 20-year-old democracy might be under threat, Atiku Abubakar called on President Buhari and security agencies to uphold Nigeria’s constitution with an understanding that voting is a civil right and civic responsibility.

“The Nigerian military is constitutionally responsible for protecting our national integrity and its borders and has no role to play in the conduct of elections.

Additionally, I call on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), once again to remain impartial arbiters while ensuring that they conduct credible elections, this time around.

INEC must ensure that all logistical challenges are addressed between now and Saturday, the 23rd, and that all materials retrieved from the field are inspected by participating political parties before the commencement of the elections”, Atiku stated.

He also took time to point out that the President’s utterances and those from his party bring back memories of the days of military dictatorship. He said “General Buhari has repeatedly violated the constitution and failed to uphold the rule of law, recent instances include the unconstitutional suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the day before he was to appoint the judges for the electoral tribunals that will decide any appeals of whether any of our elections were subject to manipulation.Thereby crossing the immutable line that divides the Executive from the Judiciary.”

In reaction to the President’s threat that those who disrupt the voting system would do so at the risk of their lives, Atiku stated that “It is quite shocking for any head of state to utter such words in a democracy. A pre-condition for ‘free, fair and credible’ elections is that the people are able to cast their vote without fear of violence.

Elected into office by the votes of the people in what is considered Nigeria’s most free, fair and credible election, you owe it to our people to let them give their verdict in the same way you were elected”.

Defection: Ex-Oyo Gov, Akala's Son, Olamiju Sacked As Ogbomoso North LG Chairman

Olamiju Alao-Akala, son of the former Governor of Oyo State Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, has been advised to honourably vacate his seat as the Chairman, Ogbomoso North Local Government by the Legislative Council of the local government.

This was contained in a letter addressed to Olamiju, dated 18th February, 2019 and signed by the Head of Local Government Administration of Ogbomoso North Local Government, Mr. M.F Afolabi. Where it was stated that the resolution to releave Olamiju Akala of his position was arrived at plenary of the local government's Legislative Council on Friday 15th February, 2019.

Copy of the letter was made available to our reporter.

Recall Olamiju Akala, who is currently serving as Chairman of Ogbomoso North Local Government under the ruling party in the state the All Progressives Congress (APC), was sighted on his father's campaign train last week in Ogbomoso. 

Akala is the gubernatorial candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP).

Osun PDP Accuse APC Of Faking Attacks To Draw Security, Public Sympathy

The Peoples Democratic Party, Osun State chapter has come heavily on the All Progressives Congress in Osun State and their lies and fabrications in order to deceive the Police authorities in the state. 

They are again trying to implicate our Party  members, the PDP and Police authority   by making them enmeshed in frivolous arrest of members of the opposition parties based on unconfirmed allegations of attacks and other untoward activities.

The State Chairman of the party in Osun State, Hon. Olasoji Adagunodo made a reference to a petition written against PDP members in Ila local government area of the state by APC who brought about 12 people to Asubiaro hospital claiming that PDP members attacked and injured them.

They wore bandages on their legs, arms, heads and other parts of their bodies but a closer observation revealed that all their claims of attacks, injuries etc, are mere frame up and there were no injuries on the entire 12 people who  carried bandages all over their bodies.

In order to remain impartial,  the police commissioner in Osun State should, as a matter of duty, investigate the hospital, the policemen who investigated the story and come out with clean a bill to convince Nigerians and Osun people as an unbiased umpire in the present situation and possibly apply the appropriate law to sanction them as a deterrent to others like them who may want to create and confusion in our dear state.

Hon. Olasoji Adagunodo,

State Chairman,

Peoples Democratic Party,

Osun State Chapter.

All Political Parties In Akwa Ibom Accuse INEC Of Partisanship

The text of a press conference held in Uyo by the Forum of All Political Parties in Akwa Ibom State, following the postponement of the 16 February 2019 elections

Gentlemen of the Press,

As you may all be aware, the general elections that were to kick off on Saturday, 16 February 2019 have been moved forward by one week. The rescheduling came as a surprise and with a huge cost to us; we were ready as a party for the elections. INEC has said the elections were postponed to get the logistics right in order to deliver a free, fair and transparent elections. In light of the explanation by INEC, we as Political Parties have accepted the cost incurred as a necessary sacrifice for the good of our democracy.

Let us take the advantage of this pause on the road to thank God whose grace and protection have seen us thus far in the Akwa Ibom Project.

We want to also thank the good people of Akwa Ibom in general and members and supporters of our parties in particular who have remained loyal to the cause in the past months in spite of many challenges as we keep up the good fight to recover and redeem our dear state. We urge them to remain mobilized and ready until the job is done.

We want to take note of the work of members of the security services and urge them to exercise professionalism in the discharge of their duties in the state.

Permit us to place on record the support of leaders of our various Parties. Their support in the form of good counsel and contributions in material terms have helped the us to cope with many hurdles that have confronted the parties in the cause of this project. However, many challenges remain and must be addressed for us to achieve our set objectives.

INEC AND THE IMPERATIVE OF FAIR UMPIRE

We have had cause in the immediate past to call attention to the failure of the INEC leadership in the state to inspire the confidence of all parties in the political process by reason of the actions of the Commission and the utterances of its leaders.

INEC has betrayed unbridled partisanship through the selection of its ad hoc staff, some of whom are drawn from the employees of the Commission, contrary to extant practices and institutional requirements.

Through connivance with the state government, all the ad hoc staff of the Commission is made up of loyal members and supporters of the PDP.

In addition, the Commission has acted as though it were part of the Government House in Uyo. In spite of our representations to the head office of the Commission in Abuja, nothing has been done to allay our concern that the INEC office in Akwa Ibom State is not a fair umpire and cannot deliver a free, fair and transparent election because it is partisan and in bed with the ruling PDP government in the state. This anomaly must be addressed.

SECURITY THREAT

Just as we warned of the partisanship of the election umpire, we had raised the alarm that the PDP and the state government stockpiled arms and recruited thugs and terrorists to be used to rig the elections. What happened on the eve of the now rescheduled 16 February 2019 elections proved beyond reasonable doubt that the alarm we raised was not unfounded. On the eve of the first scheduled sets of elections, the Police arrested more than 500 thugs in various parts of the state. Confessions by the captured criminals showed clearly that they were brought into the state from other parts of the country by PDP politicians. The thugs were arrested with sophisticated arms and ammunitions.

At this point, we want to register our appreciation to the security forces who averted a bloodbath through their quick and precision strike to neutralize the threat posed by the infiltration of the dangerous criminals into the state by leaders of the PDP.

However, our concern over security as we approach the rescheduled election is more structural. Field reports from our men on the eve of the rescheduled elections show that there were no visible deployments of security forces in the state. This smacks of sabotage. What was worse, the state Commissioner of Police actually disarmed the tactical command of the Force and redeployed them elsewhere. That kind of inadequate attention to security at a critical period like election season is an open invitation to trouble from elements such as thugs and anti-social elements who flooded the state on the eve of the elections.

1000 VOTE DEFENDERS

We want to call attention of the security agencies and members of the public in general to the open boast by the State Governor, a boast well reported in the mainstream media, that he had made provisions for ‘1000 vote defenders’ for each polling unit during the elections. Since the state has 2980 polling units, the governor would have to use ‘2,980,000 vote defenders.’ I want to ask the security agencies and the public at large to see the connection between that boast by the governor and the flooding of the state on the eve of the rescheduled elections with thugs and terrorists imported from other states in the nation. It is common knowledge that most of the polling units in the state cannot boast more than 500 people. So where was the governor going to get his ‘1000 vote defenders’ from? The answer to that query lies in the importation of thousands of thugs and terrorists into the state by the PDP government. The Udom Emmanuel administration is thus a direct threat to the sanctity of the forthcoming elections and therefore to our democracy. Given the immunity enjoyed by the governor until he leaves office, we call for immediate arrest and prosecution of all those who work with him to endanger the state with industrial scale importation of nearly three million thugs and terrorists deceitfully spoken of as ‘vote defenders.’

PROSECUTION

We demand a thorough investigation of those thugs with the purpose of determining who brought them into the state. We also demand that the criminals and their sponsors should be promptly prosecuted in accordance with the extant laws of the land.

NEED TO BEEF UP SECURITY

Given the unprecedented security threat in the immediate build-up to and during the first scheduled elections, the need to enhance security to avert a bloodbath in the state and guarantee free and fair elections cannot be overstated. We are therefore calling on the National Security Adviser, the Inspector General of Police and the Director General of the DSS to take a peculiar look at Akwa Ibom State, and accordingly beef up security in the state with more police personnel, more DSS operatives and more armed forces personnel. The level of threat in Akwa Ibom State, given the number of thugs arrested on the eve of the first scheduled elections, shows that we cannot make too much provision for security in the state.

EFCC AND CASH SEIZURE

We received report that during the week leading to the first scheduled elections, the EFCC intercepted a cash haul of N1.3 billion moved from the state government accounts at Heritage Bank, intended to be used to bribe INEC officials and for vote buying in some parts of the state. We call on the EFCC to clear the air on this report.

VOTE BUYING BY STATE GOVERNMENT

As reported under the EFCC cash seizure above, the State Government is using state funds to indulge heavily in the criminal practice of vote buying at N10,000 per voter in all the 2,980 polling units in the state.

In addition to the general vote buying, the State Government is busy mopping up PVCs in opposition strongholds through mindless financial inducement of voters to part with their voter’s cards at the rate of N50,000 per card.

We are hereby calling on all Akwa Ibom people not to sell their PVCs. The PVCs represent your power to change a government that has not helped you in any way and replace it with a government that will support your business, invest in your child’s education with bursary award and develop your communities.

We also want to call on the security forces to go after the criminals who are disenfranchising innocent voters by taking away their PVCs through a trick of a financial inducement.

Gentlemen of the Press, before we end this conference let me thank you too for your professionalism in reporting the events and issues that shape this election process. Your job is not yet done. We therefore look up to you for continuing show of professionalism in your work as members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm.

Again, we thank all stakeholders in the Akwa Ibom Project. Let’s continue to work together until the set task of rescuing our dear state from crass ineptitude is achieved.

Long live Forum of All Political Parties!!

Long live Akwa Abasi Ibom State!!

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!

Signed:

Association of Registered Political Parties in Akwa Ibom State.