APC leadership to march on INEC, warns police against stopping it
(Nigeria) The All Progressives Congress, APC, has said that it will
stage a peaceful procession to Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC
headquarters in Abuja on Thursday to register its disapproval of the commission’s
failings in recent elections, including the Delta Central senatorial district
bye-election and the 'inconclusive' Anambra State governorship poll.
In a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed, the party vowed to proceed with the march, despite the illegal
move by the police to stop it.
''We are doing this as a patriotic service to the nation
because INEC as presently constituted is not capable of organizing a free and
fair election again in Nigeria. If the Commission is not checked, its incompetence
and conniving acts could plunge the country into chaos of unimaginable
proportions,'' it said.
APC explained that ahead of the march, it wrote a letter to
the FCT police command to inform it of the planned procession and to request for
police escort to forestall a possible hijacking of the march by sponsored
hoodlums.
''To our dismay, however, the FCT Police Commissioner did
not only turn down our request for police escort but also cheekily advised us to
restrict our activity to holding a press conference within our party
headquarters to convey our grievances to INEC .
''We reject this very patronizing directive from the
partisan FCT police command and hereby states that in exercise of our constitutional
rights, the leadership of the APC will go ahead with its planned peaceful
procession on Thursday, the 28th of November, to express our dissatisfaction
with the corruption-ridden INEC and to pass a vote of no confidence on the
Commission,'' the party said.
It said the police should not mistake its letter to the
security agency as a request for permission to stage the procession, since the law
has said no such permission is required.
''When we wrote this letter, we were quite aware of the
ruling of the Appeal Court affirming the decision of Justice Chinyere of the
Abuja Federal High Court the in the case of All Nigeria Peoples Party v Inspector
General of Police (2006) CHR 181 which said, inter alia: 'If as speculated by
law enforcement agents that breach of the peace would occur, our Criminal Code
has made adequate provisions for sanctions against breakdown of law and under
so that the requirement of a permit as a conditionality to holding meetings and
rallies can no longer be justified in a democratic society.'
''Being mindful of the position of the law on this issue but
as a law abiding and a patriotic political party, we nonetheless in our said letter
asked the police to provide us with escort during the procession, in line with
international best practices. That the police turned down this request speaks
volumes about its disdain for the rule of law.
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