Ahmadu Yaro faults allegations that members of his party masterminded the violence that trailed the presidential election in Kaduna State. Instead, the opposition party boss says the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should be held responsible for the crisis which claimed many lives. Excerpts:
On the arrest of some Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) members for involvement in the crisis
Yes, many of those arrested by the police after the crisis are our members. They were arrested in error. The allegations against them were false, because they were not involved in the killings and burning of houses. It is not true that CPC members were responsible for the killings and burning of houses during the crisis. The police arrested people all over the state in connection with the mayhem, not because they are CPC members.
Call for the release of those arrested
The time I organised a press conference calling for their release, about 700 CPC members were arrested and taken to prison custody by the police. About 300 of them were accused of killing people and burning people’s houses, while some were accused of bearing dangerous weapons during the post-election violence in the state. At the moment, about 600 of them are on bail while the remaining 50 or so are still in detention. But we are still working on how to secure their release.
Why he arranged for bail for non-CPC members
Well, it’s not all the people in detention that we’re going to bail. And we don’t even know some of them, but we are assisting them to secure their bail on compassionate ground. As chairman of a party, I have to consider the plight of those suffering in prison custody and assist them, not necessarily CPC members. I wanted people to know that I am a kind man who is willing to help anybody. You know that our political party is a good party that has the interest of the people at heart. They charged some of those they said killed people to court; some of them were accused of burning people houses. But it’s all a lie.
Those responsible for the mayhem
It was PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) members who were fighting each other as a result of the fallout of their party’s primaries. It was a crisis within the PDP that caused the crisis. Many of their members were not happy. That was why they started the crisis; it’s not CPC. That is what we believe. We are confident that it was not CPC members. They want to blackmail CPC; that was why they said it was CPC that started the violent protests. Because they saw that the CPC was about taking over the government and they didn’t want the CPC to win. For example, there has never been an election in Nigeria where Army or Police attacked people like the recent elections. So that’s why they moved the military against the party because they didn’t want CPC to win.
Link between the protest and the presidential election
That violence did not start from the CPC; it started as a result of people’s anger with the leadership of the country. The people were angry because of government’s failure to give them what they want. So they decided to protest to show the government that they are doing badly.
CPC challenge to the election of Governor-elect Patrick Yakowa
It is our hope that we win at the tribunal. We have evidence of massive irregularities during the elections which we are going to show the court and we are expecting the court to give us favourable judgment.
Source: 234next
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