Archive for the ‘Progressives’ Category

PDP plans to use court to stop polls

National Publicity Secretary, All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Lai Mohammed | credits: File copy

The All Progressives Congress said having failed to convince Nigerians to accept the postponement of the February elections, the Peoples Democratic Party had set in motion plans to shift the polls by ensuring that the APC presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), was disqualified.

The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this in a statement on Tuesday.

It said the case instituted at a Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday, seeking a declaration that Buhari lacked the requisite qualification to contest the February 14 presidential election, was the first in a series of court cases to be instituted just so that the elections would not hold.

The statement partly read, We are not surprised at this, because these desperadoes are so predictable. They are following the footsteps of the infamous Association for Better Nigeria which helped to annul the 1993 elections and which threw Nigeria into a crisis from which it has yet to fully recover, over 20 years later.

We can only appeal to the judiciary not to become a willing tool in the hands of those who will stop at nothing to scuttle the elections, just to perpetuate their firm grip on power.

The party said President Goodluck Jonathan was aware that if the elections went ahead as scheduled, he would lose to Buhari by a landslide.

It said the threats issued by those close to Jonathan that they would not accept the outcome of the election, should Jonathan lose, was evidence that the President was not prepared for transparent elections.

It said, An ally of presidential aide, Doyin Okupe, has revealed that President Jonathan will rather have the military takeover than hand over to the APC candidate. Although Okupe has made a tepid denial, the revelation has exposed the thinking and the desperation within the Presidency, ahead of the elections.

We are also aware that up till this moment, the President has yet to repudiate the ex-militants in the Niger Delta who have threatened the countrys very existence if he is not re-elected, as if elections are won by fiat. When this is added to ongoing moves to depopulate the North-East, which is an opposition stronghold, using scare tactics, one can see that this Presidency and the PDP are as terrified and desperate as they can be.

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PDP plans to use court to stop polls

Political violence: APC seeks UN, AIs intervention

The All Progressives Congress in Rivers State has called on the United Nations, Amnesty International and other relevant international organisations to intervene in the continued attack on its members.

The state APC said while some of its members had been killed as a result of political violence allegedly unleashed by the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, many of its faithful had sustained serious injuries following the attacks.

Speaking during an international press conference in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, the State Chairman of the APC, Dr Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, also urged humanitarian and democratic organisations to put in place a high-powered election monitoring network in the state.

Ikanya explained that such measures would help to avert bloodbath, which might cripple the already weakened economy of the state, adding that an acceptable election outcome was possible in Rivers only if the exercise was free and fair.

He stated that a free and fair election would not be possible if the current spate of violence, highhandedness, intimidation and terror was not halted.

We call on Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, relevant organs of the Economic Community of West African States, the African Union and the United Nations to immediately commence independent inquiries into the gruesome attacks and killings in Rivers State.

We call on these and other humanitarian and democratic organisations and institutions to set up a high-powered election monitoring networks, teams and processes to monitor the elections in Rivers State to avert unnecessary bloodbath which may cripple our already weakened economy.

An acceptable electoral outcome is possible in Rivers State only if the elections are truly free and fair. There cannot be free and fair elections if the spate of violent high handedness, intimidation and terror is not halted.

As the 2015 general elections approaches, the scale, magnitude and intensity of the orchestrated violence against members of the APC is assuming a frightful dimension and this necessitated that we cry out to the Nigerian and international community, the state APC chairman added.

Ikanya maintained that thugs allegedly hired by the PDP attacked and killed APC members under the watchful eyes of the police without any arrest.

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Political violence: APC seeks UN, AIs intervention

Speak on poll shift calls, APC tells INEC

The All Progressives Congress has demanded a concrete statement from the Independent National Electoral Commission on whether the February elections will be shifted or not.

But the party also warned that no one should interfere with the conduct of the elections.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, a chief of the party, said the party was not prepared to tolerate any excuses.

Baba-Ahmed, who represented the party at a parley the commission had with all the 26 registered political parties in Abuja, said INEC should double its efforts in the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards.

He said, First of all, we want INEC to make a statement, a very clear statement, that the dates, February 14 and 28 are sacrosanct. No one should interfere with the conduct of the elections on the 14th and 28th of February.

We want INEC to double its efforts to make sure that all voters get their PVCs before the elections. We want INEC to improve on voter education.

In the whole, we feel that INEC is doing its best and we encourage and support it.

This election must go on; there is no going back on these elections. This election must hold on the 14th and 28th of February. We will not tolerate any excuses.

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Speak on poll shift calls, APC tells INEC

Buharill inherit bad economy, says el-Rufai

Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, on Tuesday said the partys presidential candidate, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), would inherit a wrecked economy if elected as president in February.

El-Rufai said he too would inherit a bankrupt state after the governorship election if he is elected as the chief executive officer of Kaduna.

The former minister of the Federal Capital Territory spoke at an Organised Private Sectors interactive session in Kaduna.

He said the state had been bedeviled with domestic liabilities totalling N106bn and that most of the monies received or generated internally were used to settle debts.

He said about N700bn had been wasted in the past seven years in the state, a situation he described as most unfortunate.

El-Rufai noted that the nation was presently passing through an economic crisis as it was in 1983.

General Muhammadu Buhari will be inheriting a broken economy like he did in 1983, just like I am going to likely inherit a bankrupt state when we take over power, he said.

He said if elected in the February 28 governorship poll, he would, among other things, develop human capital, ensure a free and compulsory education for the first nine years for all children in the state as well as fix schools and improve teachers training.

He said he would also ensure that the take home salary of teachers were higher than any civil servant in the state workforce.

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Buharill inherit bad economy, says el-Rufai

Young Progressives For Chuy – One Chicago Rally – Video


Young Progressives For Chuy - One Chicago Rally

By: Adrian Garcia

Excerpt from:
Young Progressives For Chuy - One Chicago Rally - Video