Call Buhari to order now, PDP urges Abdusalami’s National Peace Committee

…Alerts CJN, UN, says President’s actions threatens peace …Women groups alleges Bauchi APC Senatorial candidate is Amina Zakari’s husband The Peoples Democratic Party ((PDP) has charged the National Peace Committee headed by former Military President, Gen Abdudalami Abubakar (rtd), to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to desist from certain anti- democratic tendencies capable of threatening national peace before, during and after the coming general elections. The party as well alerted the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnonghen, the United Nations and world leaders to save the nation from imminent collapse by immediately calling President Muhammadu Buhari to order, if the nation must have peaceful, free, fair and credible general elections. The PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation (PPCO) said that President Buhari’s desperation for self-succession has become the major threat to national unity, stability and peaceful electoral process. Kola Ologbondiyan, Director, Media & Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation (PPCO), at a press conference on Sunday, accused the Buhari Presidency of seeking ways to enmesh the electoral process in crisis by “overheating the polity with its unending manipulations of INEC, muzzling of free speech and escalated clampdown on opposition and Civil Society Organisations and we insist that such must stop if we must have a peaceful election”. Insisting that there can never be free and fair election with Amina Zakari in INEC, the PPCO said that there is no way peace can be guaranteed without a free and fair election. “We want the National Peace Committee and the entire world to know that as long as Amina Zakari is in INEC, a peaceful election is not guaranteed because she has the mandate to abuse the process and this will not be accepted by Nigerians. “The PPCO therefore calls on the National Peace Committee to immediately speak out on the impropriety of having Amina Zakari in INEC as well as insist on her removal so that we can have a credible and peaceful Presidential election. “Already, Nigerians across the board are livid with anger over the foisting of Mrs. Amina Zakari, President Buhari’s relation, to head the collation of Presidential election results. “President Buhari’s insistence on having his relation in-charge of collation of Presidential election results is completely provocative, a direct affront to the sensibilities of Nigerians and express invitation to crisis of epic proportion, which is capable of truncating the entire electoral process and derailing our hard-earned democracy. “The world is aware that majority of Nigerians have rejected Mrs. Amina Zakari. Over 90 percent of the political parties in the election, as well as major political and socio-cultural groups across the country have also called for her resignation from INEC, yet President Buhari is insisting on her stay in the commission. “Our party is aware of plots by the Buhari Presidency to use Amina Zakari, who has been mentioned as part of those involved in the rigging oft 2018 governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states, to plunge the 2019 general elections into controversies, truncate the flow of results and even render elections in some critical states inconclusive, to pave way for allocation of fictitious votes to President Buhari and the APC”. The party expressed concern over clamping of eminent opposition figures into detention for being opposed to the APC led administration. It noted that peaceful election cannot be guaranteed as long as the Buhari Presidency continues to besiege, harass, intimidate, unleash violence and provocative acts of totalitarianism against opposition figures and persons perceived to be against President Buhari’s self-succession bid. Charging Justice Onnonghen, the PPCO alerted the entire world and particularly the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) of the ongoing use of the Police to clampdown on opposition figures, particularly members of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and outspoken CSOs on trumped-up criminal charges. “Part of the plot is to charge such individuals before certain compromised judicial officers, in various states, who have been briefed to detain, silence and put such opposition figures and CSO members out of circulation until after elections are concluded. “Particular cases at hand are those of our Presidential Campaign Director on Civil Societies, Senator Dino Melaye, who is being hounded for his outspokenness against the misrule of the Buhari Presidency, as well as Civil Rights activist, Deji Adeyanju, who is widely believed to have been held down in prison because of his scathing criticism against the violations of the rights of Nigerians by the Buhari Presidency”. It recalled that Senator Dino Melaye had earlier alerted of plots by the Police to arrest and poison him, adding that his present ordeal as well as those of the civil rights activist, Deji Adeyanju, in the hands of the Buhari-led authorities, is incendiary in an election year and insisted that no harm must come to them or any member of the opposition or CSOs, before, during and after the elections. Ologbondiyan said “the PPCO is aware that the aim is to use the state apparatus of power to attempt to instill fear in Nigerians, stifle free speech, cow opposition and CSOs to silence so as to pave for President Buhari’s self-succession. “This is a clear attempt to return our nation to the nightmares of the 1984 when draconian leaders forcefully subjugated innocent Nigerians under the grips of military Decree 2 and we urge the CJN to save our nation by insulating the judiciary from this ignoble scheme”. However, the PPCO urged President Buhari Presidency to note that it is preposterous for anybody, no matter how highly placed, to think that our great party, the PDP and our Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who enjoys the support of overwhelming majority of Nigerians, can be subdued out of the political space in our country. “We therefore counsel President Buhari to tame his desperation for power. Our nation has had many Presidents before President Buhari and there will be many more after him. “President Buhari will not be the first President to be defeated in an election as such he should not set our nation on fire just because he is feeling the air of rejection due to his incompetence and the gale of corruption in his administration”, he said. In the same vein, Nigerian Women and Youth Groups under the aegis of Accord Women & Youth Initiative insisted that Mrs. Amina Zakari was morally wrong in holding any position in INEC due to her affinity not only to President Muhammadu Buhari but a Senatorial candidate of the APC in Bauchi State. Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, Mrs. Esther Opaluwah, on behalf of the Initiative, said the election can only be neutral and transparent if Mrs. Zakari relinquish her position as Ad Hoc Committee Chairman on National Collation Centre. She said “Mrs. Amina Zakari who is not only a blood relative of the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari but also married to the APC Senatorial Candidate of Bauchi South, therefore by consanguity and affinity her hands are tied”. The Initiative accused Mrs. Zakari of repeatedly failing the neutrality and impartial test in her past assignments especially in conducting elections in the South West, stressing that her conduct as INEC Commissioner rubbed off negatively on the integrity of the electoral processes. Mrs. Opaluwah said “the 2019 General elections is very important to us as Nigerians and we refuse to fold our hands and watch a few individuals including Mrs. Zakari ruin our democracy”. Tunde Opalana, Abuja