‘PDP plans to use court to stop polls’

National Publicity Secretary, All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Lai Mohammed| credits: File copyThe 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 Buharilacked the requisite qualification to contest the February 14 presidential election, was the first in a seriesof 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 country’s 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.”The party urged the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, to advise Jonathan and his aides not to abuse the courts or use it as a tool to truncate democracy, as this could throw the country into chaos.