The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused President Goodluck
Jonathan of carrying his re-election desperation to a new height on
Monday when he unleashed thugs on Lagos residents during a sponsored
OPC protest against INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said just as it (APC) had
alerted the nation in its press statement on Sunday, the President’s
supporters, led by the OPC, took to major roads in the city during
rush hour traffic to unleash mayhem on the citizens, create massive
gridlock that prevented many workers from reaching their places of
work and destroy any APC campaign poster they could lay their hands
on.
”They said we are raising false alarm. But just as we had alerted
Nigerians, the Jonathan Administration’s sponsored protest took place,
with dire consequences for residents. However, the President’s chances
in the forthcoming elections suffered a collateral damage as the
9-billion-Naira-powered protest backfired, with even supporters of the
President being forced to have a rethink due to the massive scale of
the lawlessness and brigandage that took place during a supposedly
peaceful protest,” it said.
APC said the next plot by the opprobrious Jonathan Administration is a
series of anti-Tinubu demonstrations in Lagos, for which the planners
have been mobilized with millions of Naira.
”During the forthcoming demonstrations, the protesters have been told
to carry placards asking the EFCC to probe the allegations made
against Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the deceitful, ill-intentioned
and irresponsible ‘documentary’ that was sponsored by the same
Jonathan Administration. Such is the level of President Jonathan’s
desperation for re-election that a man who is not on the ballot in the
forthcoming elections has become a target of unprecedented mudslinging
by his (President’s) Administration,” the party said.
It said taking into consideration the sponsored protests by MASSOB and
the OPC, the unprovoked and virulent attacks on the presidential
candidate of the APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the sponsored documentary
of lies as well as the planned demonstrations against Tinubu, and the
inciting statements by First Lady Patience Jonathan, who has asked her
supporters to stone APC members and supporters, there is undisputed
evidence that President Jonathan himself is leading the campaign to
make the elections violent and Nigeria ungovernable.
”It is a cruel irony that a President who swore to an oath to make
the security and welfare of Nigerians his priority has been the same
one orchestrating reprehensible acts of violence in the polity, to the
detriment of the well-being and safety of his compatriots, just
because of re-election desperation.
”Because they (protesters) were pro-Jonathan, hordes of policemen who
could not prevent a deadly robbery, in which three policemen lost
their lives in Lagos a few days back, offered massive protection to
the OPC members who brandished guns, machetes, clubs and knives openly
as terrified Lagos residents scampered for safety.
”It is noteworthy that the policemen who protected the OPC members
during their protest did not stop them from destroying APC posters and
other campaign materials, neither did they prevent them from
unleashing mayhem on the people. As far as the increasingly-partisan
security agents were concerned, everything done in support of
President Jonathan is fair.
”We are therefore alerting all Nigerians as well as the international
community to note that President Jonathan himself is the one setting
the stage for violence before, during and after the forthcoming polls,
despite his tiring platitude that his political ambition is not worth
the blood of any Nigerian. From this precarious situation to which the
Administration and the PDP have pushed Nigeria, it is but a short cut
to Laurent Gbagbo’s post-election Ivory Coast,” APC said
The party wondered which country President Jonathan wants to govern
when he is relentlessly engineering the destruction of Nigeria by
goading ethnic militias into violence and exploiting the nation’s
fault lines to divide the people along regional, religious and ethnic
lines.
”We have said it before: President Jonathan is not interested in a
free, fair and peaceful polls. He is not interested in the welfare and
security of Nigerians. He does not give a damn about the unity of the
country. For him, the end justifies the means, and any action, no
matter how objectionable, is alright if it will favour his
re-election.
”This is not the stuff of good leaders. What kind of leader is that
who will be willing to plunge his nation into crisis just for his
political ambition? What sort of President will be bribing people from
all walks of live with foreign currencies just to return to office,
instead of showcasing his achievements, if any? What desperation will
make a President to empty the treasury and endanger the nation’s
economy? Why would a leader worth his salt turn to ethnic militias to
help him win re-election? These are some of the questions that are
begging for answers from President Jonathan,” APC said.
