Security has been escalated in the Federal Capital Territory ahead of a planned protest by the All Progressives Congress at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in the Central Business District.
The protest which is to be led by former General Muhammad Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other party leaders is meant to showcase the loss of confidence in INEC after the shoddy elections the body conducted in Anambra earlier this month.
Soldiers have been drafted to INEC headquarters and the Nigerian Police has refused to give the protesters protection. Sources with insight on the matter said the security situation in Abuja would not permit for such a march, and the APC leaders were expected to understand this development.
However a statement issued by the APC spokesman, Lai Mohammed, he said the Party was determined to continue with the strike.
The statement said: ‘’We are doing this as a patriotic service to the nation because INEC as presently constituted is not capable of organising 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.”
The statement also said it had informed the FCT police of its intention to carry out the protest march with due notice.
It added: ‘’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 patronising 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.
‘’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.
‘’We will not be deterred by the blatantly-partisan police, who have missed another great opportunity to affirm their neutrality and respect for the rule of law. We will use this march to prove the point that we shall not condone a police command, however partisan or corrupt, abridging our constitutional rights.”