Why APC Cannot Campaign In Yobe And Borno

The country’s main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has revealed why it cannot campaign in the two northeastern states of Yobe and Borno.

Senator Chris Ngige

The revelation was made on Wednesday by a leading member of the APC presidential campaign council and the former governor of Anambra state, Senator Chris Ngige, during an interview with journalists at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.

A This Day correspondent reported that Ngige blamed lack of security clearance for the party’s inability to hold rallies in the aforementioned states, which are currently facing insurgency attacks.
He said the party’s presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, had campaigned in Adamawa, Taraba and Gombe states, but the campaign rallies slated for Borno and Yobe could not be held before the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) rescheduled the February 14 and 28 elections to March 28 and April 11.

The former governor said that although the party had fixed tentative dates to hold presidential rallies in the remaining north-eastern states, the arrangements were still subject to security clearance from the military authorities.

“I rather not talk about these states because talking about that will mean delving into the security issues.  We have marked them out but there were tentative dates that we said were subject to security clearance and that we would go if we get the guarantees.  But we didn’t get the security clearance so we don’t go,” he said.
 

Ngige also highlighted an important issue regarding the increase in campaign spending by the political parties and their candidates resulting from the poll delay, adding that the postponement would cause both the parties and their candidates to do more campaigning, meaning increased production and distribution of campaign posters and other materials. 

Ngige, while fielding questions on whether the APC would continue with its national rallies until the new election dates, said the Buhari campaign team would continue to rally but would not go to all the states again.

“We have not concluded our campaign as you know because of this endured extension, blackmail extension, so we will fashion out what we would do.  We would not go to all the states to campaign again, you know in some states we only visited the state capital. For example in Abia State, we visited Aba, the commercial city but we left Umuahia which is the administrative capital. In Anambra we visited Awka, we didn’t go to Onitsha, in Delta we visited Warri and we didn’t go to Asaba so we would use this opportunity now to touch areas that are pressure points,” Ngige said.
Ngige denied that the party was scared about the certificate law suit against its presidential candidate, saying the plaintiffs are only trying to confuse Nigerians instead of establishing a legitimate point.

“How can we panic about it, those who are talking about it don’t know the law, or they want to be mischievous and confuse the public. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria says you must be educated up to the school certificate. It doesn’t say you must have the school certificate, there is a big difference. And if you go to the interpretation clauses you will see that education up to school certificate means that you could have standard six and have administrative experience in a public service. You could have standard six and have technical experience in the public service or you could have standard six certificates and after many years of enterprise and you are qualified under that law. So they are just trying to confuse people, a drowning man will always look for a straw. This straw they are holding up to is not strong enough. The general is properly educated, we don’t dispute that. They are now going into technicalities to say that he should have attached his school certificate. Let them come and run an election that is what we are saying. You are an incumbent and incumbent has the disadvantages and advantages; advantage is the one they are planning with armed forces. But the disadvantage is that you must show something, you must have things to show and we are asking them, show Nigerians why they should vote for you again after 16 years, they were unable to do so, so for me, this is a non-issue,” Ngige said.

loading...