By Abdallah el-Kurebe
Following the postponement of February elections, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) has said that Nigerians no longer have confidence in the Military,the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as President Goodluck Jonathan.
A press statement signed and issued in Sokoto on Monday by the National Secretary of the party, Alhaji Abubakar Abdullahi stated in parts that the reasons adduced to the poll shift were laughable, unacceptable and untenable.
It noted that it was only after the reason of voter disenfranchisement was tackled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki and the PDP cooked up the security story.
According to the statement, Col. Sambo Dasuki first requested the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to shift the date of the election on “the assumption that 34 percent of Nigerians would not have collected their PVCs. But when INEC was about to achieve success by producing 96 percent and distributing same across Nigeria, the story changed to non guarantee of security for the polls.”
UPN noted that the Police are known to provide security during election and therefore, the participation of the military in election matters was a new thing. “By the way, the participation of the military in elections is a new thing in this country. What was the norm was that police requested for the deployment of the military in those areas that became volatile during elections.”
The party alleged that Nigerians did not trust the military and the PDP. “The Nigeria’s Military should know that, Nigerians do not trust them neither do they trust the leaders of the PDP. It was the military that told us they knew where Chibok girls were but up till now there is no trace of our girls,” it said.
UPN added that Jonathan could no longer be trusted if he claimed that he was not informed about poll shift, a matter that affected more than 60 million Nigerians.
“This shows that he is not in control. And since he is not in control, he does not deserve to be our president,” it stated.
