APC Wants NASS To Probe Obanikoro, Fayose, Adesiyan Alleged Rigging Tape

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, Nigeria 2015 Election Wednesday, February 11th, 2015

By Ayo Balogun, Lagos – The Nigerian leading opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) has demanded the National Assembly (NASS) to launch a probe into the roles the military played in the rigging of Saturday, June 21, 2014 Ekiti Governorship election, especially with respect to the danger it portends for the country’s democracy.

In doing this, the party requested that the Federal Legislative bodies must invite everyone featured in the “audio of shame” secretly recorded by Capt. Sagir Koli, an intelligence Officer of the 32 Artillery Brigade and made public last weekend, to testify about the rigging plot of the poll, through the use of military.

Indicted by the audio recording on the eve of the election were former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanokoro, Police Affairs Minister Jelili Adesiyan, Iyiola Omisore, Ekiti State’s Governor, Ayo Fayose and Brigade Commander, Brig.-Gen. Aliyu Momoh, among others.

APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed at a press conference in Lagos Wednesday reminded the Presidency and the PDP that the military was a national institution that was far too important as a symbol of the national unity to be toyed with or dragged into partisan politics.

He added: “We will also remind the military that its loyalty should be to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not to any party or individual, whoever that person may be”.

While making reference to Capt. Koli’s audio interview which revealed that a total of 1,006 military officers and men were deployed to Ekiti, as part of Special Task Force deployed to the 16 local governments of the State, with instruction to ‘work’ with the PDP, Alhaji Mohammed stated his party warned for the for the umpteenth time, that the military should not be used for policing duties during the coming elections, holding that such role should be left for the police and the Civil Defence.

“Is it not curious that over 1,000 troops could be made available for election duty at a time the military was battling the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east? Is it any surprise then why this battle has not achieved much in six years? The opposition National Publicist queried.

Alhaji Mohammed also held that his party’s alarm on the nocturnal movements of Obanikoro in Ado Ekiti, the special flights to Akure Airport apparently ferrying money to be used for the Ekiti election, the over-militarization of Ekiti State ostensibly to provide security for the election but now obviously to stifle the process and rig the election, and the fact that an army captain and his troops virtually arrested and detained Gov. Rotimi Amaechi by the roadside while he was on his way to Ado-Ekiti for our party’s final rally ahead of the election, with the audio had been justified.

Similarly, the party’s image maker established that its alarm that the PDP chieftain Chris Uba – in the presence of AIG Baka Nasarawa; Mrs Florence Ikhanone of SSS; Brig.-Gen. Momoh; and Mr Ayo Fayose’s Chief Security Officer, Kayode Adeoye – addressed the Special Task Force that included 67 SSS operatives, 30 soldiers, 30 NDLEA operatives and 70 mobile policemen, with the audio has confirmed its wake – up call.

While alleging that the ruling PDP has again vowed to use soldiers for election duty, according to the Director-General of the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organization, Senator Ahmadu Ali, APC alerted Nigerians that the present Administration and the PDP have perfected the plot to do the same – use the military to “thwart the aspirations of Nigerians for a change that will usher in a purposeful government”.

The leading opposition indicated that given the revelation on the social media, the party was alight with information that the military was meeting in Kaduna with a view to working out the modalities to help the PDP at the polls, lamenting that this sent the wrong signal to the polity as well as the international community about the role of the military in Nigeria’s elections

“We want to assure Nigerians that we will ensure that this issue will not be swept under the carpet, and that those who are found to have played an ignominious role in what is now definitely a plot to rig the Ekiti election will be brought to justice” Alhaji Mohammed declared.