All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to live up to his promise of a free and fair election in Anambra State on Saturday, saying the President must be believable at all times.
In a statement in Lagos on Thursday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said nothing on ground in Anambra so far points to the fact that Saturday’s election will be free, fair and transparent, despite the President’s promise.
”Rightly or wrongly in our country, institutions of state take a cue from the President’s body language. They know that members of the ruling PDP who engaged in electoral malfeasance and brigandage during last month’s Delta Central Senatorial election were not punished. They know that security agencies that turned themselves to the armed wing
of the PDP were not sanctioned. In this context, therefore, the
President’s promise of a free and fair election will not mean much to those bent on repeating same in Anambra,” it said.
APC also said the fact that one of the candidates in Saturday’s
election, Willie Obiano of APGA, has continued to evade justice despite a glaring electoral offence committed by him, through his proven multiple registration, does not give anyone much confidence that INEC can indeed be trusted to ensure a level-playing field for all the parties.
”President Jonathan should be careful in staking the credibility of his high office on these elections. His promise of free and fair elections in Ondo did not materialize, as the world knows, and the unprecedented electoral heist in Delta does not back up his administration’s claim that the country’s electoral architecture has improved under his watch.
”That is why we say the President must walk the talk. He should know that talk is cheap. If the institutions of state that have any role to play in the election fail to live up to that role, and the ruling party continues to engage in a flagrant abuse of office by stealing votes in the most blatant of manners, then the President’s promise of a free and fair election would have been rubbished,” the party said.
It said the world will be keenly watching on Saturday to see how INEC, the police and other security agencies carry out their roles, to see how the PDP, which is not even in a pole position going into the polls, wants to emerge victorious, and to see whether all that matters to the President is a free and fair election – as he has promised – or the rubbishing, at all cost, of the APC.
”The people of Anambra should be allowed to elect a governor of their own choosing. No one should impose any leader on them. And the way to go is to ensure that every citizen is free to cast his or her vote without harassment and intimidation, and that every vote is counted and made to count. This is not too much to ask for,” APC said.
