Presidency once again blasted the opposition, this time over a set of “false” allegations.
In an exclusive interview with Punch, held March 3, Tuesday, the
Special Adviser to the President, Reuben Abati, said that the All
Progressives Congress (APC) had resorted to propaganda and blackmail. He
explained that the reason for such behaviour was that they knew the
opposition would fail in the forthcoming polls.
Abati described all the accusations as baseless, false and meaningless, which emerged as a result of the APC’s despair.
Regarding the circulating reports about another purported postponement, Abati said:
“Anybody who has been listening to news will see that the President has consistently said he does not see any reason why the polls will be shifted again.
“He has consistently assured the international community that government has no intention whatsoever to shift the polls because the date of the inauguration of a new government is May 29 and that that day is sacrosanct.
Abati described all the accusations as baseless, false and meaningless, which emerged as a result of the APC’s despair.
Regarding the circulating reports about another purported postponement, Abati said:
“Anybody who has been listening to news will see that the President has consistently said he does not see any reason why the polls will be shifted again.
“He has consistently assured the international community that government has no intention whatsoever to shift the polls because the date of the inauguration of a new government is May 29 and that that day is sacrosanct.
Whatever postponement that has taken place is within the
frame of the law and it is constitutional. The law gives a timeframe to
hold elections.”
On the widely circulating “plot” to remove the INEC chairman, the official again referred to the words of Goodluck Jonathan:
“The President himself has addressed this categorically that he has never at any time discussed the issue with anybody that he wants to sack Jega.
“He said before you can remove anybody, you have to first establish that the person has committed an offence and that there is nothing before him to indicate that Jega has committed any offence.
“The APC, because its key spokespersons seem to have talent for noise making, keep insisting that there are plans to remove Jega. The question to be asked is if there is something they know that we do not know. Is there something between them and Jega that they are so desperate?
“What it means is that at the end of the day, we do not expect that the APC will turn around and say they have no faith in the outcome of the election or that Jega did not conduct the election very well.
“The way they are packaging Jega, you will think he is even a member of their party. I hope that when eventually they lose the election, they will be honest enough to accept the outcome.”
Finally he addressed the reports saying that Jonathan planned to freeze the accounts of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
Abati said there was no sense in the claims that Jonathan was planning to freeze the accounts of a former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.
On the widely circulating “plot” to remove the INEC chairman, the official again referred to the words of Goodluck Jonathan:
“The President himself has addressed this categorically that he has never at any time discussed the issue with anybody that he wants to sack Jega.
“He said before you can remove anybody, you have to first establish that the person has committed an offence and that there is nothing before him to indicate that Jega has committed any offence.
“The APC, because its key spokespersons seem to have talent for noise making, keep insisting that there are plans to remove Jega. The question to be asked is if there is something they know that we do not know. Is there something between them and Jega that they are so desperate?
“What it means is that at the end of the day, we do not expect that the APC will turn around and say they have no faith in the outcome of the election or that Jega did not conduct the election very well.
“The way they are packaging Jega, you will think he is even a member of their party. I hope that when eventually they lose the election, they will be honest enough to accept the outcome.”
Finally he addressed the reports saying that Jonathan planned to freeze the accounts of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
Abati said there was no sense in the claims that Jonathan was planning to freeze the accounts of a former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.
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