APC accuses Jonathan, PDP of breaking electoral law

President Goodluck Jonathan

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of flouting the electoral law by encouraging and funding the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria which has been rallying support for Jonathan’s re-election nationwide.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in a statement on Sunday that Jonathan’s refusal to stop the rallies was evidence that he was behind TAN.

The APC also said the fact that the rallies were being coordinated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius, ministers, governors and other public office holders in Jonathan’s administration, showed that TAN had the President’s backing.

The APC said it was hypocritical of the President to have stopped the Bring Back Goodluck 2015 movement after international condemnation but allowed TAN to continue to operate. The party said the collapse of the podium where dignitaries were seated during the TAN rally in Niger State on Saturday was only the beginning of the destruction of the PDP.

The statement read, “If the President had not been running a government hallmarked by impunity, there is no way any political party would have brazenly kick-started electioneering campaign under the guise of an ‘’NGO’’ that is coordinated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, ministers, governors and other public officials, at a time like this.

“The PDP-led Federal Government and its ‘NGO’ called TAN are bare-faced liars and cheats. They have seized an undue advantage over every other party by defying the nation’s laws to start an early electioneering campaign, and no one, not even INEC, dares call them to order! Little wonder, their podiums are collapsing under the weight of their lies,’’ it said.

However, the PDP in a statement on Sunday, urged members of TAN and other groups in support of the second term of Jonathan not to include officials of the party in their campaigns.

The National publicity Secretary of party, Chief Olisa Metuh, who said this in a statement he issued, said it was wrong to link officials of the party with the campaigns of the support groups.

Metuh insisted that while the party recognised the inalienable right of citizens under the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to freely associate and publicly express their support for persons of their choice, the party wished to restate in the strongest possible terms that no official of the PDP at any level should for any reason whatsoever be involved in such events until after the primaries.