The conspiracy to scuttle this year’s general elections
which was postponed from February to March and April, is
said to be gaining momentum, following allegation by the
National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed that leaders of the PDP are planning a meeting
with some military top brass on how to rig the election at
all cost in favour of President Goodluck Jonathan.
According to PM News report, a military source at the 1
Division of the Nigerian Army in Kaduna confirmed that the
Presidency is working hard and also using the opportunity
of the postponement of the coming elections to rig back
President Jonathan to Aso Rock in a do-or-die tactics.
The security source said: “A secret memo has been
forwarded to all the heads of Divisions, Brigades and
Battalions of the Nigerian Army across the country for
a 3-day strategic meeting in Kaduna this week. The
agenda of the meeting is on the coming elections and
how to effectively use the military to intimidate voters
especially in all the strong areas of the opposition
across the country. The meeting will also be attended
by the head of the special presidential task force and
other Service Chiefs. The Army Chiefs will work with
other security arms of government to rig the coming
election in favour of GEJ.”
Also, Senator Babafemi Ojudu has revealed President
Goodluck Jonathan’s secret plot to avoid election and
extend his tenure by two years on the grounds that Nigeria
is at war.
Senator Ojudu (APC, Ekiti Central) told members of the
Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) that Jonathan has been
making spirited moves to court National Assembly
members into approving his agenda for the two-year tenure
elongation.
According to the Daily Trust, Ojudu made the revelation on
Tuesday while addressing the ARG gathering at the
University of Ibadan with the theme “ The change Yoruba
will vote for .”
Senator Ojudu, in his submission, said: “If anybody thinks
there is going to be elections on March 28, the person is
deceiving himself. All the people that are close to me,
especially my friends, I told them a year ago that there
would not be election and that they are just deceiving us.
“ Some of us who are perceptive have seen this in the body
language of our colleagues; the body language of the
Senate President himself, David Mark . When we came back
from the summer recess last year, he said that for him, it’s
not time for election. We should not be thinking of elections
now, rather we should be thinking of fighting Boko Haram.
The moment we took him up on that, he reversed himself.
“There are conscious attempts at lobbying some of us to
work against having elections. Therefore, where they have
got to now is the preliminary stage.
“We will resume next week Tuesday. I can assure you, they
may likely bring a motion asking us to adjourn or postpone
the elections for six months because there is an ongoing
war.
“The constitution allows this. The constitution states that
where and when there is a war in any corner of the country,
the President can bring a motion to the National Assembly
to postpone the elections for six months in the first
instance and this can be passed by just a simple majority.
“If you think at this time that they may not get simple
majority, you may be wrong. This is because 80 per cent of
the senators and House of Representatives members are
not returning, not out of choice. Perhaps, I am the only
person who is not returning out of choice in the entire
National Assembly. All others attempted but they did not
make it.
“This may surprise you, we are all broke. If they say we
want to give you two more years as it is being quietly
requested by Jonathan, virtually everybody will vote for
that.”
He said Jonathan had been pleading that the National
Assembly should allow him to continue for two more years
because he feared that if the election holds and a northern
Muslim wins, there may be problems in the Niger Delta,
adding that Jonathan also argued that if he wins there
would be problem in the north .
“Therefore, the solution is for him to do two more years
and at the end... you can have northern-northern and
Muslim-Muslim candidates. That is their logic and that is
what they are working towards. Left to us, they know it
shall not pass. We must have to start crying out now and
be strategic in our planning,” he said.
“We are about entering into a very long night in Nigeria. It
is a very sad thing that whenever we thought we have
made a progress, we take ten steps backward. This is what
is happening now.”
Plans had been concluded to present the request to the
National Assembly ahead of members’ resumption next
Tuesday.
“We have been told that the president will forward the
request to us in the National Assembly in which he will
declare that Nigeria is now in a state of war as foreign
troops under the multinational joint forces of the African
Union are now in Nigeria,” the source said.
“The presence of the foreign troops must be backed by
appropriate legal instrument and that is why the relevant
constitutional provisions must be invoked,” the source
said.
The president, sources said, will request the National
Assembly to approve the six months tenure extension in
accordance with the provisions of the constitution which
allow for elongation of tenure of political office holders if
the nation is in a state of war.
A source in the legislature said already, “ monies have been
made available to induce lawmakers into approving the
request. Again, they know that 65 percent of the National
Assembly members do not have return tickets and many of
us may be willing to approve the extension,” the source
who is ranking lawmaker said.
The initial six months extension would be used as a
smokescreen for subsequent extensions as the president
will request for three more extensions to make it two years.
When contacted, Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Rules and Business Senator Ita Enang declined to comment
saying “I am not aware of it and I won’t talk about what is
not before us.”
However, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC, Borno) said
any such request must be approved by 2/3rd majority of
each chamber of the National Assembly and “ as far as I
am concerned, it won’t scale through. We will defeat it.
APC has majority in the House and they (PDP) do not have
2/3rd majority in the senate ,” he added.
Another source said if the tenure extension plot fails the
Presidency would resort to “Plan B”. He said this entails
setting up interim government to be headed by a former
leader or an ex-security chief.
Sources said the idea of handing over to an interim
government is the last card to be played by the presidency
as hopes for Jonathan’s re-election keeps dwindling. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS
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