All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday raised an alarm that the Federal Government and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were planning to deploy the military in the March and April general elections, like last year’s Ekiti State gubernatorial election.
Making reference to an audio-recording of a meeting where alleged plot to rig Ekiti election was hatched as well as a video recording of an interview with Captain Sagir Koli by saharatvonline, where the captain shed light on the alleged mischief that transpired on the eve of the Ekiti gubernatorial election, APC said: “These audio and video tapes detail how some top officials of the Federal Government and PDP, including then Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanokoro, Police Affairs Minister, Jelili Adesiyan, PDP chieftain, Iyiola Omisore, then PDP gubernatorial candidate, Ayo Fayose and Brig-Gen. Aliyu Momoh, among others, used the Nigerian Army and other security agencies to rig the governorship election in Ekiti.”
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, at a press briefing yesterday called on the National Assembly to launch a probe into the role of the military in the untoward rigging of the Ekiti gubernatorial election, even as he alleged that the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government had again perfected plans to use soldiers to rig the forthcoming elections like it did in Ekiti.
He said the Ekiti style plot was being perfected to thwart the aspirations of Nigerians who are yearning for change in the coming general elections.
He said: “As you can hear and see, the army played a major role in the rigging of the June 21, 2014, gubernatorial election in Ekiti State.
“As Capt. Koli said, a total of 1,006 military officers and men were deployed in Ekiti, as part of a so-called Special Task Force, for the poll. Soldiers were deployed in each of the 16 local governments with the express instruction to ‘work’ with the PDP contacts in the local governments
“Also, special stickers were given to select PDP officials so their vehicles could be granted unfettered access to any part of the state, despite the traditional Election Day restriction of movement.
“Specifically, we alerted Nigerians to the fact that Brig- Gen. Momoh was sent to Ekiti with the express order of ensuring PDP won the election.”
The APC’s spokesman said National Assembly must invite everyone who featured and mentioned in the secretly- recorded audio tape of a meeting in Ado-Ekiti of some officials of the PDP, the Jonathan administration and the Brigade Commander of the 32 Artillery Brigade, Akure, on the eve of the June 21, 2014 gubernatorial election in Ekiti State “to testify about the rigging of Ekiti poll, using the military.”
The APC averred that the Presidency and PDP must not be oblivious of the fact that the military is a “national institution that is far too important as a symbol of our national unity to be toyed with or dragged into partisan politics”, admonishing that the military remember that “its loyalty should be to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not to any party or individual, whoever that person may be.”
Mohammed said: “We will like to warn, for the umpteenth time, that the military should not be used for policing duties during elections. That role should be left for the police and the Civil Defence. Is it not curious that over 1,000 troops could be made available for election duty at a time the military was battling the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East? Is it any surprise then why this battle has not achieved much in six years?”
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