Jonathan is using Boko Haram for hidden agenda to win 2015 presidential election – APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday held a salvation rally in Abuja and accused President Goodluck Jonathan of allegedly using Boko Haram insurgency for a hidden agenda to win 2015 presidential election.

The party said there was no limit to the length the President had not gone in his obsession for re-election.



It accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of working in concert with the Presidency to corrupt the system and disenfranchised voters in APC-controlled states.

It queried why the recent collection of Permanent Voters Cards and continuous registration in 12 states of the federation was a fiasco.

It asked the government and INEC to explain why the PVC exercise was muddled up in Lagos, Kano Rivers, Niger, Ogun, Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara and all APC strongholds
The APC said it was becoming obvious that President Jonathan might be unable to organize a free and fair election come February 2015.

The party said the President was also planning to use the extension of the emergency rule as excuse not to conduct the 2015 poll in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States.

It protested the inadequate funding of the Federation Account, saying it was a ploy to starve APC controlled states of funds.

Besides the rally, APC chieftains defied old age and apparatchik of office to march around Abuja metropolis to draw the attention of the government and Nigerians to the insurgency in the North-East.
The position of the APC was made known by the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun in an address at the commencement of a Salvation Rally at the Eagle’s Square in Abuja.
He said the party has tabled four demands which the President must address immediately.

He said the rally was a demonstration of the party’s lack of confidence in Jonathan’s administration.
Oyegun said: “We are here today as a practical demonstration of our lack of confidence in the ability or willingness of President Goodluck Jonathan to organize a free and fair election come February 2015.

“President Goodluck Jonathan is so desperate to win re-election that it will now appear that there is a secret understanding that our security forces should turn a blind eye to the Boko Haram Insurgency so that the insurgents can occupy as much territory as possible and make elections impossible in these areas, knowing fully well these are APC strongholds.

“Otherwise, how does one explain that local hunters carrying Dane guns and amulets are capable of dislodging the dreaded Boko Haram sect while our once proud army, which has distinguished itself in and out of the country, has failed?

We daily hear idle talks that the President needs to declare total war on Boko Haram.

“Pray, what has the Jonathan government been doing since the moment the state of emergency was declared the very first time? Or is the President saying that he declared and renewed the state of emergency several times only to cage the civil populace so that the insurgents can have a free rein?”