It was alleged by the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday that the Federal Government and the Independent National Electoral Commission were planning to disfranchise its members in both the South-West and North-Eastern parts of the country.
The opposition party specifically said the information by the Chairman of
INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega,
that elections might not hold in Borno, Yobe and
Adamawa states where the Federal Government declared emergency, was another
plot aimed at reducing the electoral fortunes of the APC.
While reading the the communique of the party after its National Executive
Committee meeting in Abuja, the Interim National Chairman of the party, Chief
Bisi Akande, claimed that the APC would resist this attempt.
Moreover, he warned the Federal Government against extending the emergency
rule in the affected states.
Akande said,
"The APC has earlier alerted the nation of the strategy of the
(President Goodluck) Jonathan administration to depopulate areas where our
party has strong followings and suppress voter turnout in the Northern and
South-West states through deliberate exacerbation of insecurity.
"We suspect that wittingly or unwittingly the recent declaration of
INEC that elections are not likely to take place in states under state of
emergency is in furtherance of this agenda.
"The APC hereby warns that it will not accept the deliberate
disenfranchisement of large swathes of our citizenry. APC will fight to defend
the right of every eligible Nigerian voter to vote.
"We also want to alert the Federal Government that any attempt to
extend the state of emergency without any justification will be resisted by
every lawful and constitutional means."
Punch
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