APC Queries FG’s Plan not to Probe Ekiti Rigging Tape
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has again called for a thorough probe of the alleged case of rigging of the Ekiti state elections.
The party released a statement in Lagos on Sunday via its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, saying the tape released by the captain involved in the scandal should not be dismissed on the basis of nothing but gross partisanship.
The party said: ”If the government officials and politicians whose voices were heard on the tape are not interested in clearing their name, what of the military institution that was dragged into the show of shame? Has the integrity of the military not been compromised by the alleged role of a General and hundreds of his troops in the rigging saga?
”First, those whose voices were heard on the tape rushed to deny there was any such meeting. Later, after they were confronted with a preponderance of evidence, they started owning up one by one, starting with Police Affairs Minister Jelili Adesiyan, then Minister of State for Defence Musiliu Obanikoro and then Ekiti Governor Ayodele Fayose, even though they all denied the meeting was about rigging. Of course Nigerians know better.
”But these men, on the basis of their initial denial, are no longer credible as far as the rigging tape is concerned, hence it is necessary to have an independent investigation of the whole issue.”
APC also said that while President Goodluck Jonathan had rushed to dismiss the authenticity of the tape, telling the Wall Street Journal ‘It’s all fabrications’, his campaign spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode said the exact opposite:
‘We have listened to the audio clip and we make bold to say that the discussion that took place in it did not make any mention of any form of rigging in the Ekiti state governorship election and neither did it contain any evidence of any conspiracy to rig.’
”Can anyone listen to a non-existent audio tape? This confusion in the government circles is the clearest indication yet that they were so panicked by the revelation that they could not fashion out a coherent response to it, hence the discordant notes by the major culprits and their oga at the top!
”We sympathize with them, but we are more worried about the effect this revelation will have on a respectable national institutional like the military, which was dragged into the rigging mess. This is why even the military itself must carry out its own investigation.
”If an Army General could be so bullied into submission by political partisans, to the point where he said he will cry, what will they not do to any other military officer or men? Does this whole rigging saga not call into question the role of the military in elections?” the party further queried.
It vowed not to allow the issue to be swept under the carpet in the interest of the nation, and commended the media and indeed all Nigerians for sustaining the discourse on the rigging tape.
