PDP cannot force Anambra fraud down our throats. APC is saying in no uncertain terms that the Nov 16 2013 elections in Anambra is a non event.
Soldiers, Police Stop APC’ demonstration a few meters from INEC Head office, Abuja.
Heavily-armed soldiers and policemen on Thursday prevented chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), including Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; Chairman of the party, Bisi Akande; and Muhammadu Buhari from reaching the Abuja headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in protest against Saturday's planned supplementary election in Anambra State.
Other members of the party who joined the protest include Chief Ogbonaya Onu and Malam Nasir el-Rufai.
The supplementary election is to cover for the lapses of the commission as well as several irregularities experienced in the gubernatorial election in the state held nearly two weeks ago.
But the APC, just like the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election, Tony Nwoye and his Labour Party counterpart, Ifeanyi Uba, as well as civil society groups have condemned the exercise and called for a fresh election, which INEC has rejected.
During the protest, party chieftains who led thousands of party members to the INEC headquarters were stopped several metres away from the INEC headquarters by the security officers.
The protest letter prepared by Bisi Akande, national chairman of the party, could not get to INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega because there was no official from the commission to receive it. The party thus decided to circulate the letter among journalists and members of the public they came across.
In the letter titled: Re: Anambra State Governorship Election: A Call To Save Our Democracy, Akande recalled that prior to the date of the election, the ominous signs of an election that was pre-determined to favour specific interests against the run of the electorate support were already clear.
In the letter titled: Re: Anambra State Governorship Election: A Call To Save Our Democracy, Akande recalled that prior to the date of the election, the ominous signs of an election that was pre-determined to favour specific interests against the run of the electorate support were already clear.
“When our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) noticed these foreboding signs, we immediately drew the attention of the electoral umpire and the whole world to them. The issues, which our party complained about through official correspondences and various press releases, are several”, Akande wrote.
“These include the unholy conspiracy between the electoral umpire (INEC) and the Presidency/PDP to rig the elections in favour of APGA, mass disenfranchisement of voters through use of multiple voters registers, deliberate delay in the distribution of electoral materials in the opposition strongholds, the disappearance of electoral officials and result sheets meant for opposition strongholds, the sudden creation of about 3,00 voting units, of which our polling Agents did not receive tags, the unconstitutional 22-hour curfew, which was a ploy to give the riggers the leeway to actualise their rigging plans while the vigilance of the electorate was inhibited by the curfew already in place and the unlawful deployment and use of the military during election and purely civil activities.
“These include the unholy conspiracy between the electoral umpire (INEC) and the Presidency/PDP to rig the elections in favour of APGA, mass disenfranchisement of voters through use of multiple voters registers, deliberate delay in the distribution of electoral materials in the opposition strongholds, the disappearance of electoral officials and result sheets meant for opposition strongholds, the sudden creation of about 3,00 voting units, of which our polling Agents did not receive tags, the unconstitutional 22-hour curfew, which was a ploy to give the riggers the leeway to actualise their rigging plans while the vigilance of the electorate was inhibited by the curfew already in place and the unlawful deployment and use of the military during election and purely civil activities.
“We complained about Anambra Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Chukwuemeka Onukogu and other federal commissioners who had proven to be biased through his conduct in previous elections. Despite INEC getting information on our complaints, we were doubly assured that our fears were founded.
“The elections that were superintended over by your commission was grossly below any acceptable standard, whether local or international. The deliberate tactic to prevent democracy and serve the two parties’ interests, PDP and particularly APGA in this case cannot be democratic and in the voters’ interest.
“And the only face-saving decision for you and your commission in this circumstance is to cancel the charade, which you want to reinforce of the electorate as a credible election”.
He said his party could gloat over the dangerous signs and the gathering storms that portend a coup d’etat against the yearnings and aspirations of the Anambra people, adding that the party cannot accept “this infamy of your commission as regards the Anambra election”.
It listed the manipulation of the 12th October 2013 Delta Central Senatorial District bye-election, the refusal of INEC to conclude the election started since 29th July 2013 in the re-run election to the Imo State of Assembly in Oguta despite that there was a clear winner, the abnormality displayed in the State House of Assembly by-election in Ringim Constituency of Jigawa State as part of the reasons his party could not fold its arms.
Other reasons, according to his letter, are “the danger that the shenanigans, the conspiracy and the subversion of the will of the people signifies to our democracy, the question our generations’ yet unborn will ask and their judgment if we refuse to do what is right to arrest the drift of our nation to the straits of destruction which have dire consequence for our people”.
Continuing, Akande wrote: “A flashback into our political history has revealed that the subversion of the will of the people has always ended in a catastrophe for our nation, thereby drawing back our quest for development. The collapse of the first and second republic political experiments are pointers to the dangerous path we are treading once again.
“We, in the All Progressives Congress (APC), cannot be cowed, for this is a time that calls for all brave men and women to rise to the desperate call of the silent majority to rescue our nation from the assured perdition of a PDP-led government at the Federal level.
“If you recall, the 2011 National Assembly elections were cancelled due to the failure of your commission to achieve the right parameters for a credible election. Our position is that if you could cancel an election that has already commenced and voting was ongoing due to flaws in that electoral process, your assertion that you do not have the authority to cancel an election that you have acknowledged as flawed and “messed up and sabotaged” cannot be sustained.
“The observed flaws in the election were deliberately planned as a strategic conspiracy of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the Anambra Governorship election in favour of their surrogate party, the PDP faction of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). With your acknowledgement of these far-reaching vitiating factors, your grandstanding to uphold the outcome of the flawed election and your haste to conduct what you call a supplementary election, without first correcting the innate flaws in the electoral process is unacceptable.
“We have lost confidence in the ability of INEC, as it stands today, to organise a free, fair and transparent election anywhere in Nigeria if the Anambra style is repeated”.
Among the party's requests, he demanded outright cancellation of the election, having been marred by serious irregularities and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
“INEC should discard the present fake multiple voters register and produce one authentic voters register that will not disenfranchise any voter and be published 30 days before any election can take place in Anambra State”, he said, while seeking the suspension and prosecution of all officials of the commission who have ever been indicted for electoral perfidy to purge the commission of such compromised officials and the immediate redeployment and investigation of current Anambra Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Chukwuemeka Onukogu.
Among the party's requests, he demanded outright cancellation of the election, having been marred by serious irregularities and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
“INEC should discard the present fake multiple voters register and produce one authentic voters register that will not disenfranchise any voter and be published 30 days before any election can take place in Anambra State”, he said, while seeking the suspension and prosecution of all officials of the commission who have ever been indicted for electoral perfidy to purge the commission of such compromised officials and the immediate redeployment and investigation of current Anambra Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Chukwuemeka Onukogu.
“Finally, we demand outright cancellation of the manipulated 16th November Gubernatorial election in Anambra State”, he said
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