The All Progressives Congress on Monday insisted that the February 14th and 28th dates scheduled for the 2015 general elections remain sacrosanct just as the May 29 handover date.
Addressing a press conference in Lagos, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said they have noted with dismay that the Jonathan Administration has continued to pursue the plot to shift the elections.
Mr. Mohammed said the party hierarchy took cognisance of the President’s assurance that the May 29 date was sacrosanct when he met with the United States Secretary of State John Kerry, in Lagos on Sunday, insisting that the elections dates are as well sacrosanct.
He said the plot in itself is one of the two-pronged approach being pursued by the Administration to either shift or scuttle the elections, which are scheduled for Feb. 14th and 28th.
The other is the campaign for an Interim Government. It is important to state here that for the APC as a party, both options represent the Devil’s Alternative (apologies to British writer Frederick Forsyth, who has a book by the same title), and are totally, absolutely unacceptable to us under any circumstance.
The APC spokesperson therefore, declared the party’s stand as far the 2015 general elections are concerned as follows:
1. APC is ready for the elections, and under no circumstance will we accept a postponement. For us, Feb. 14th and 28th are as sacrosanct as May 29th, the handover date. The government has had four years to prepare, and the dates for the elections were announced over a year ago, therefore there is no going back now.
2. We note that the PDP has also said it is ready for the polls. That is good news. Let them now end their clandestine push for either postponement or the formation of an interim government, stop engaging in scare and scandal mongering and dwell on issues, ahead of the polls.
3. We are satisfied with the assurances by INEC that it is ready for the polls, and we call on the Jonathan Administration to give the electoral body all the support and resources it requires to organize successful elections.
4. Any postponement of the election will mean that INEC is not independent and that it is being dictated to by the Federal Government, a position that will hurt the credibility of the electoral umpire.
5. Finally, any postponement on the basis of the insurgency in the North-east will represent a victory for the terrorist group Boko Haram, and will create a constitutional logjam that will take Nigeria back to 1993. Believe me, we have travelled that route before and it was not pleasant.
