6th April, 2011
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has said the terrible ordeal to which its gubernatorial candidate in Akwa Ibom, Sen. J. J. Akpanudoedehe, is currently being subjected by the state government, in collusionwith the police, raises a lot of questions about President Goodluck Jonathan’s much-stated commitmentto ensuring free and fair elections.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,the party said after Sen. Akpanudoedehe’s tormentors failed in their bid to have him put away by a court inAbuja, they hustled him to Uyo where they are now using a law – passed long after the offence (arson andmurder) for which he is being tried was committed – to put him away till after the governorship election thatthey fear he is sure to win. ”Even his life is at risk, as his tormentors fear that his popularity and acceptability in the state is such thatlocking him up may not be enough to prevent him from winning the election.
This is why his party and hisfamily and supporters have been greatly concerned about his well-being,” it said. ACN added: ”Our candidate’s alleged offence was committed on March 22nd and he is now being tried ina Magistrate Court in Akwa Ibom under a law that only came into being on March 31st. The law allows anyonecharged with arson or murder to be detained for 14 days initially, renewable by another 14 days.
There is nobetter evidence that the law was made specifically to put Sen. Akpanudoedehe away till well after the elections.” ACN said another sign of extraordinary desperation on the part of the Akwa Ibom Governor and his cohorts isthe fact that since the Magistrate court cannot try anyone for any offence that attracts more than two years inprison, the law was quickly changed so the court can try Sen. Akpanudoedehe, who faces 7 years in jail for arsonand life for murder. ”It is not a secret that Governor Goodswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom is a die-hard loyalist of President Jonathan, just as it not a secret that the Governor has engaged in sheer distortion of facts in the Akwa Ibom violence case, just to convincehis bosses in Abuja that Sen.
Akpanudoedehe must be put away for PDP to have any headway in the state. ”Therefore, President Jonathan cannot pretend not to be aware of the situation in Akwa Ibom, regarding the Governor’sresort to lawlessness, and the glaring desperation to crush any real or perceived opposition in the state. It is thereforeincumbent on the President to call the Governor to order. ”We also call on the international observers, who have converged on the country for the 2011 general elections, to factorin such anti-democratic acts in Akwa Ibom – the harassment of opposition candidates and the sheer brigandage of arrestingand detaining opposition supporters, some of whom have now died in detention – in compiling their reports on the generalelections. ”Election rigging is a process that does not start on election day alone.
Closing the democratic space, as the Akwa IbomGovernor has done; using the police to harass and intimidate the opposition and using retroactive laws to put oppositioncandidates away are all different ways and means of rigging elections. This is why we are calling on the President, theinternational observers and all men and women of goodwill to prevail on the obviously power-drunk Governor of Akwa Ibomto stop his undemocratic and desperate acts,” ACN said.