“By postponing the elections, the President (Dr. Goodluck Jonathan) has simply postponed his doomsday,” All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation has said.
In a statement, the Director of media and publicity of the party’s Presidential Campaign Organusation, Garba Shehu said that while the election postponement was supposedly to enable a multinational force that will launch an onslaught on Boko Haram and recover the terrorist group’s stolen territories, President Jonathan had actually seen the handwriting on the wall and had become desperate, like most men in a state of panic.
“All the opinion polls show that President Jonathan is in his last days at Aso Rock.
“Reports reaching us say that even the polls that his government has commissioned in secret by independent polling companies in the United States, United Kingdom and Israel have shown him that the Nigerian people are massively against him.  He is surely headed for a loss at the polls.”
Garba Shehu said that President Jonathan had the past five years to do everything his government could to stem the Boko Haram crisis, and was now pretending to be suddenly concerned about the people of the northeast when he had hitherto showed no concern for their welfare.
“How does he expect anyone to believe that he suddenly cares about the same people he has abandoned all this while?   Or does he suddenly care because there is an election coming up?  What kind of leader is that?”
He made it clear that the election postponement was simply a postponement of the inevitable, adding that there is nothing the president can do to change anything within six weeks.
Garba Shehu’s verdict on behalf of the APC Presidential campaign organisation is: “Jonathan has failed Nigeria.” [myad]

A civil rights organization, National Democratic Front (NDF) has seen the shift in the dates for the conduct of the 2015 Nigeria general elections as a master stroke by chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Attahiru Jega to shame his detractors.
In a statement in Abuja today, the Coordinator of the Front, Comrade Philip Agbese said that the decision to shift the dates has cleared Professor Jega from some allegations that he has been procured to do the bidding of a particular ethnic group and certain political actors.
According to him, the postponement has shown Professor Jega’s respect for the rights of about 22 million Nigerians who might have been denied the right to vote at the polls.
He commended what he termed the remarkable improvement in inclusive democratic ethos even as he acknowledged the INEC respect also for human lives “going by the concerns raised by the security chiefs.
“Professor Jega has proven to the world that he is a man with conscience. He has shown uncommon love for popular views and his concern for the lives and property of the common Nigerians. He was appointed not just to conduct elections but also protect national interests. This he has exhibited. It is commendable and should be emulated by all public office holders.”
He however appealed to INEC and the security chiefs to see the postponement of elections as a window to address the basic challenges confronting the commission with a view to conduct free, transparent and credible elections.
“You should not give in to the antics of selfish politicians that are out to make a political capital out of the postponement.”
Agbese advised Nigerians not to see the postponement as a setback but that they should see it as a unique opportunity to make a mark in nation’s democratic journey. [myad]

Lawyers to All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari Chief Wole Olanipekun and Lateef Fagbemi told the Federal High Court in Abuja that they would file applications challenging the competence of the suits against Buhari’s qualification to contest the 2015 Presidential election. They would also challenge the entire steps taken in the suit so far, including the orders of service through substituted means.

Justice Adeniyi Ademola had, in two separate suits challenging Buhari’s eligibility to contest in the election, last week granted ex parte orders permitting the plaintiffs to serve the defendants in the suits through newspaper publications. He directed that General Buhari and APC should be served through substituted means‎ in a suit challenging Buhari’s eligibility to stand for the March 28 poll.

The court had also granted an order of abridgment of time within which the defendants must respond to the suits.

Though, Buhari and the APC had yet to file any papers in the suit, their lawyers – Chief Wole Olanipekun and Lateef Fagbemi – urged the court to adjourn the matter to enable them to file all the necessary documents.

Fagbemi also urged the court to ‎set aside the order of abridgment of time within which the defendants must file their responses, arguing that the granting of the order hinged on urgency, had already been diminished with the postponement of the poll from February 14 to March 28.

The judge then adjourned till February 23.

The plaintiffs in the separate suits are Chukwunweike Okafor and Max Ozoaka. They were represented in court by their lawyers today.

Apart from Buhari and the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission is a defendant in the two suits.

There are at least three other suits ‎seeking an order directing INEC to disqualify Buhari from participating in the poll because he among other things, failed to attach evidence of his academic qualifications to the form he submitted to the electoral body.

‎The plaintiffs are in their separate suits contending that the INEC FORM CF 001 submitted to INEC by the APC candidate submitted to INEC was incomplete and therefore urged the court to declare the form as incompetent.

They further stated that the failure of Buhari to accompany the INEC Form with evidence of his educational qualifications and evidence of his birth certificate or affidavit of declaration of age had altogether rendered the form inchoate.

Ozoaka, in a supporting affidavit to the originating summons, stated that the INEC Form submitted by Buhari did not meet the requirements under sections 31(1)(2) & (3), and 31(8) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended). [myad]

Lagos lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has described the threat by the Nigeria military that its men and officers would not be available for the elections, originally scheduled for February 14 and 28 respectively as a result of which they were shifted to March 28 and April 11 as an act of mutiny.

In a statement in Lagos today, Falana said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should have called the bluff of security chiefs and proceeded with the February 14 presidential election, even as he said that ‎by saying that they would not provide security in aid of civil authorities pursuant to section 217 of the Constitution, the security chiefs have committed the offence of mutiny contrary to section 52 of the Armed Forces Act.

‎according to him, also by causing the election to be postponed, the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the security chiefs had staged a coup against the constitution.

“They are liable to be prosecuted for the grave offence of treason at the appropriate time,” he added.

He also said that INEC misconstrued section ‎25 of the Electoral Act when it relied on it to postpone the election, adding: “the reliance on section 25 of the Electoral Act by Professor Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman is totally misleading.”

According to him, the provision does not support the postponement of a general election in the entire country but “in the area or areas” where there is violence or actual threat of a breakdown of law and order.

“Since the reason for the postponement of any election must be “cogent and verifiable” it is crystal clear from the press conference addressed by  Jega last night that  INEC did not verify the bogus claim of the NSA and the security chiefs as required by the law.”

Falana said that contrary to the mistaken belief of the INEC leadership, the armed forces had no role to play in the electoral process.

He cited a judgment delivered last week by a Federal High Court sitting in Sokoto where the court declared illegal and unconstitutional the involvement of soldiers in election duties.

The judgment, he said, was binding on all authorities and persons in Nigeria.

He described as blackmail, the letter written to INEC by the National Security Adviser to the President, to the effect that the armed forces could not provide security for the election because of the operations in the north-east region. [myad]

National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun advised Nigerians not to fall into a trap set by the ruling People Democratic Party (PDP) government through what he called, provocative postponement of the general elections from February 14 and 28 to March 28 and April 11.
In a statement reacting to the postponement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Chief Oyegun described the postponement as a big set back to the nation’s democracy.
“This is clearly a major setback for Nigerian democracy. Though what has happened is highly provocative, I strongly appeal to all Nigerians to remain calm and desist from violence and any activity which will compound this unfortunate development.
“We must not fall into this obvious trap. Change we must. They can only delay it; No one can stop it.”
He assured Nigerians that APC would not abandon its commitment to change and that would sustain the struggle to establish a new Nigeria. [myad]