The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has dragged President Muhammadu Buhari to United Nations, UN to call him to order for constituting a big threat to conducting credible elections in 2019.
It also appealed to the National Peace Committee led by former military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, retd, to call the first citizen to order.
The PDP Presidential Campaign Council, PPCO, stated this Sunday while addressing a press conference in Abuja said the “desperation” to succeed himself has made the President to put national unity and stability on the line, damning the consequence.
“We want the whole world to know that Nigeria is in a perilous time. President Muhammadu Buhari’s desperation for self-succession has become the major threat to our national unity, stability and peaceful electoral process.
“Having realised that Nigerians are rallying behind our candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as their next President, the Presidency is now seeking ways to enmesh the electoral process in crisis.
“The Buhari Presidency has been overheating the polity with its unending manipulations of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, muzzling of free speech and escalated clampdown on opposition and civil society organizations and we insist that such must stop if we must have a peaceful election,” the party stated.
No free and fair election with Amina Zakari
The PPCO again, reiterated its call for the dismissal of Amina Zakari from INEC, whose appointment last week as chairperson, national collation for the Presidential election is still generating diverse reactions from Nigerians.
“The PPCO insists that there is no way peace can be guaranteed without a free and fair election. Already, Nigerians across the board are livid with anger over the foisting of Mrs. Amina Zakari, President Buhari’s relation, to head the collation of Presidential election results.
“President Buhari’s insistence on having his relation in charge of collation of Presidential election results is completely provocative, a direct affront to the sensibilities of Nigerians and express invitation to crisis of epic proportion, which is capable of truncating the entire electoral process and derailing our hard-earned democracy.
“The world is aware that majority of Nigerians have rejected Mrs. Amina Zakari. Over 90 per cent of the political parties in the election, as well as major political and socio-cultural groups across the country have also called for her resignation from INEC, yet President Buhari is insisting on her stay in the commission.
“Our party is aware of plots by the Presidency to use Amina Zakari, who has been mentioned as part of those involved in the rigging of the 2018 governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states, to plunge the 2019 general elections into controversies, truncate the flow of results and even render elections in some critical states inconclusive, to pave way for allocation of fictitious votes to President Buhari and the APC.
“We want the National Peace Committee and the entire world to know that as long as Amina Zakari is in INEC, a peaceful election is not guaranteed because she has the mandate to abuse the process and this will not be accepted by Nigerians,” it added.
No peaceful polls with citizens under siege
The campaign council also noted that peaceful elections in 2019 cannot be guaranteed as long as the Presidency continues to “besiege, harass, intimidate, unleash violence and provocative acts of totalitarianism against opposition figures and persons perceived to be against President Buhari’s self-succession bid.”
It continued: “The PPCO alerts the entire world and particularly the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, of the ongoing use of the Police to clamp down on opposition figures, particularly members of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and outspoken CSOs on trumped-up criminal charges.
“Part of the plot is to charge such individuals before certain compromised judicial officers, in various states, who have been briefed to detain, silence and put such opposition figures and CSO members out of circulation until after elections are concluded.
“Particular cases at hand are those of our Presidential Campaign Director on Civil Societies, Senator Dino Melaye, who is being hounded for his outspokenness against the misrule of the Presidency, as well as Civil Rights activist, Deji Adeyanju, who is widely believed to have been held down in prison because of his scathing criticism against the violations of the rights of Nigerians by the Presidency.
“The PPCO recalls that Senator Dino Melaye had earlier alerted of plots by the Police to arrest and poison him. His present ordeal as well as those of the civil rights activist, Deji Adeyanju, in the hands of the Buhari-led authorities, is incendiary in an election year and we insist that no harm must come to them or any member of the opposition or CSOs, before, during and after the elections.
“The PPCO is aware that the aim is to use the state apparatus of power to attempt to instill fear in Nigerians, stifle free speech, cow opposition and CSOs to silence so as to pave way for President Buhari’s self-succession.
“This is a clear attempt to return our nation to the nightmares of the 1984 when draconian leaders forcefully subjugated innocent Nigerians under the grips of military Decree 2 and we urge the CJN to save our nation by insulating the judiciary from this ignoble scheme.”
