8th February, 2015
Jamiu Yisa
The national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has described the postponement of the February general elections as democracy at gun point, adding that Nigeria’s democracy is now at the mercy of the gun.
The former governor of Lagos State who tweeted this while reacting to the poll shift via his twitter handle @AsiwajuTinubu, added that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega caved in to pressure and blackmail.
According to him,”The postponement of the Feb. 14 elections is a mere pretext by the PDP to gain time to perfect their rigging machine. Nigerians are unhappy.
“This is democracy at gun point. Our democracy is now at the mercy of the gun. Jega caved in to pressure and blackmail.
“What is new about the security situation in the last one week that has not been there in the past 3 years to warrant this postponement?
“The service chiefs are being clever by half By playing the script of the ruling party. They do their profession great harm and Nigeria damage.
“Nigerians are not ignorant of the plots/sub plots for postponement. An incumbent that pulls all the stops to postpone elections is a loser.
“For the ambition of one man and his partying cronies, the rights and interest of 68 million voters is violated There is a dictator in charge
“The APC will counsel its members and Nigerians to be calm as the party processes this. We know there is no stopping the wind of change.
“Let’s dissect carefully what was said. Postponed not because of security situation per se but because army decided to go on a belated offensive,” he tweets.
The INEC boss, Professor Jega, while speaking at a delayed press conference at about 11pm on Saturday, 7th February, 2015, said that the presidential and National Assembly polls will now hold on Saturday, 28th March, 2015 while the governorship and state assembly elections will now hold on Saturday, 11th April, 2015.
It was a late press conference Jega addressed yet he met a full house of journalists, both foreign and local, who have been keeping vigil at the INEC headquarters since 10am Saturday, 7th Febrruary, 2015.
The press briefing was postponed severally. It was fixed for 5:00 p.m., later postponed to 6:00 p.m. then to 9:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m. and finally before it held at 11:00 p.m.
Jega told the packed press briefing that while INEC was prepared to hold the eelction, the security report did not favour holding the election.
According to him, the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki wrote to the electoral body that security report did not favour the election taking place in February.
He stated further that the NSA also sent similar report to the Council of State meeting noting further that with the need to protect the lives of workers for the election, observers, voters and even electoral materials, there is need to postpone the elections.
According to him, as at Friday, 6th February, 2015, 48, 829, 808 permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) have been collected by prospective voters which represented 66.58 percent of the total registered voters.