The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday accused the Presidency and the military of colluding to rig the coming elections in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It claimed that a three-day meeting of the senior military officers which began on Monday was for that alleged purpose.
APC, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, at a press conference in Abuja had said “We are aware that the Presidency has forwarded a secret memo to all commanders of divisions and battalions of Nigerian Army for a 3-day strategy meeting in Kaduna from today on how to use the military to intimidate voters in APC States to rig election in favour of President (Goodluck) Jonathan,”.
The APC statement was read by its national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.”
The APC faulted the letter by military chiefs which called for the six-week shift of the elections, earlier Nibilled to begin on February 14. It noted that the military chiefs had earlier indicated readiness to support the conduct of the elections on the previous dates.
Odigie-Oyegun, said: “On the 2nd of February, at the National Peace Committee meeting in Abuja with the representatives of different political parties, the service chiefs gave assurances of their readiness for the elections. At the occasion, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh gave assurances of the Armed Forces’s preparedness for the elections. According to him “even though we are busy in the North East, we also have capabilities across the nation.”
“Badeh also admitted that the role of the military is merely to support the police in providing security during elections. At the same event, Chief of Army Staff, General Kenneth Minimah said, “we are aware of the need for security, before, during and after the elections. We will deploy across the States of the Federation in areas we discover that have capacity for violence. We are prepared to ensure we have peaceful elections.”
On the allegation of collusion between the presidency and the military, the APC said: “The greatest threat to our democracy today is the way the ruling party has compromised the leadership of the Nigerian military to serve the personal agenda of President Jonathan. This is a dangerous game. A recent court judgment in Sokoto clearly ruled that the military had no role in the electoral process. What happened with this postponement is that Service Chiefs simply vetoed a democratic process on the directive of President Jonathan. We know what politicisation is doing to our once proud military institution.”
It added: “Since recent revelations about the role of the military in Ekiti elections is demonstrable proof of how far this government will go to compromise the military as an institution, could it be that when the Service Chiefs said they would not have enough personnel to provide security for the elections, what they are actually saying is that they would not have enough soldiers to intimidate voters in favour of the ruling party if the elections had proceeded as scheduled?”
