The All Progressives Congress has said the use of armed soldiers to harass and intimidate voters will not work during the 2015 general elections.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this in an interview with our correspondent, in Abuja, on Sunday.
He explained that the APC lost the Ekiti State largely due to the unconstitutional involvement of armed military personnel who were used to harass and intimidate its supporters and voters, as well as the obscene use of money.
Mohammed said it was very unlikely that the use of armed military personnel to cow voters will have any impact in 2015, because all politics is local and what happens in one state may not be possible in another.
He said, “What happened in Ekiti was possible because it was an isolated election. In an isolated election they could use all kinds of intimidation, the obscene use of money and over militarialisation, in the general elections, you can’t have 36,000 security men in Ekiti State alone.
“If they want to try that in Osun, we wish them luck. We will assure Nigerians that we will continue to play the game according to the rules.
“We will continue to demonstrate to Nigerians that for us as a party, politics is not do or die we only want to serve.
“But if anybody in Nigeria today, feels that character, performance, accountability, visionary leadership is to be sacrificed on the altar of stomach infrastructure; we are not going to impose ourselves on the people.”
According to him, the party was worried and disturbed but not cowed.
He said, “We will go back to the drawing board. But clearly, we are going to encourage those of our leaders who were arrested, unlawfully detained to seek redress in court.
“Why we are worried about what happened in Ekiti is because it is actually dangerous in one respect. Dangerous in the sense that what happened is just like saying, it doesn’t matter we may not have electricity, government may not be able to provide us roads, our children could be missing, youths could be dying when they are stampeded when they go to look for jobs, Boko Haram could be ravaging the whole country it does not matter.
“All that matters is if we are able to spread enough money to a few people, we use soldiers and other security operatives to intimidate voters this is the sad lesson from it.”
The party spokesman wondered how the people could reject a governor that introduced a welfare programme, who blocked all avenues of corruption and improved the educational system.
He further explained that the outcome of the election has redefined the sociology of Ekiti people, if really that is their wish.
He however, said it was the beauty of democracy.
He said people could reject what was considered development and say they don’t care.
He said, “All we want is somebody who can dance Fuji with us in the morning, Azonto with us in the afternoon and drink palm wine with us in the evening. If that is their wish, they get that of government.”
He expressed confidence that what happened in Ekiti was not likely to adversely affect the fortunes of the party in 2015.
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