new National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure that Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Ekiti State do not degenerate into a crisis. John Oyegun, at a press conference in Lagos, Friday, said that the final days of electioneering campaign in Ekiti provided an avenue for the federal government to “bare its fangs” with a series of unconstitutional acts. “We urge President Goodluck Jonathan to live up to his pledge, made several times over, that he would always ensure that elections held under his watch are free and fair, and that his ambition is not worth the life of any Nigerian,” Mr. Oyegun said. “The President should call his dogs of war to order before their precipitate a serious crisis in Ekiti,” he added. The APC had accused the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, -led federal government of preventing its state governors from participating in the final electioneering campaigns of Kayode Fayemi, the Ekiti State Governor. Mr. Oyegun said that the party’s governors were not only prevented from attending the rally, the helicopter that was to ferry Adams Oshiomhole, the Edo State governor, from Benin to Akure was denied permission to take off by the aviation authorities apparently acting on “orders from above.” “Then while the plane bearing Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, who is also the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, was allowed to and at the Akure Airport, his convoy was stopped by soldiers at the border of Ondo and Ekiti state, and ordered to return to Akure by the leader of the troops, an army captain who said he was under orders not to allow him into Ado Ekiti and threatened to shoot him if he defied his orders. “Gov. Amaechi was detained along the road in the bush for as long as it suited the soldiers before he was forced to return to Akure. While the Governor was being detained on the road, the convoys of the Minister of Police Affairs and the Minister of State for Defence sped past and were not stopped by the troops,” Mr. Oyegun continued. “But the worst was yet to come. On arrival in Akure Airport, he found out that the airport has been shut, leaving him stranded. By the time other Governors, including Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Ibikunle Amosun of Rivers, and party leaders including myself, Chief Bisi Akande and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu arrived at the Akure Airport for their onward journey to their various destinations, they discovered that the airport has been shut, apparently on the same nebulous ‘orders from above’. “Thus, all the party leaders and supporters who came to the rally from across the country, including Sokoto, Abuja, Kano, Owerri, Port Harcourt and Lagos, were forced to travel by road back to their destinations, with the dangers inherent in such night journey,” he added. The APC National Chairman also accused the PDP of using aircraft to ferry money into Ekiti State for the election. “Within the past three days, two aircraft, one a Beechcraft 1900 and another a Hawker 900, made a total of three trips to the Akure airport ferrying cargoes of money for the Ekiti election,” Mr. Oyegun said. “When one of these cargoes burst open, naira notes with wrappers bearing the name of a popular bank spilled out. The offloading of these cargoes, which were then loaded into bullion vans heading for Ado-Ekiti, was supervised by Minister of State for Defence, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro, as widely reported in the media and yet unrefuted. “Placed against the background of a statement credited to a PDP leader that huge amounts of money have been made available by the FG for the Ekiti election, this raises huge concerns,” he added.
Posted on: Sat, 21 Jun 2014 11:36:27 +0000
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