By George OPARA
Amid fears on Saturday the factional Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by Kabiru Turaki has eventually ratified the the former president Goodluck Jonathan’s candidacy for the 2027 general polls.
Spear News Nigeria gathered that armed police operatives were mobilised to block access to the venue planned for the political event.
The venue, A-Class Event Centre in Maitama, Abuja, Spear News Nigeria gathered was allegedly inaccessible after security operatives with about eight police Hilux trucks barricaded the entrance to both sides of the dual-carriage Kashim Ibrahim Way leading to the facility.
It was said that the PDP faction immediately relocated the venue for the event to another place within the Federal Capital Territory.
Eye witnesses account indicated that police operatives stood by at the blocked road hours after the event had been concluded somewhere else
In his reactions, Turaki who condemned the action, accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) led federal government of a undermining democratic processes.
“No matter how highly opinionated they may be about themselves, or no matter how they think that they can use their positions to thwart democracy, we want to tell them that Nigeria is bigger than anybody and any group of persons,” Turaki said.
He added: “We will not fight. The time of fighting will come when we meet at the polls. We will meet you there, we will fight you there, we will defeat you there. And then we will pin you down on the ground. I want to thank our leaders.”
Turaki urged party supporters and delegates to remain peaceful and avoid any form of confrontation despite the provocation.
“I want to plead with our delegates, please go back to your respective destinations. Resist any amount of provocation.
Any person you see trying to fight, just know that they do not have the chances of winning. We believe we are on the right course. We believe that we are going to win the election. Therefore, fighting is not for us,” he said.
Recalling negotiations between political leaders and the military government in 1998, he said democratic actors had insisted on the establishment of an independent electoral commission as a condition for participating in the transition programme.
“When we negotiated with the military government in 1998, believe you me, it was so serious that we were not going to agree to be part of a transition programme, as civilian political leaders, unless three things happened.
“And our argument was so serious, our position was so serious. I remember that Dr. Kofi Annan, the then Secretary General of the UN at that time, came all the way from New York to chair that meeting between us and the government of the military. The meeting was held at the Nicon Hilton,” he said.
Gana noted that the political class was represented at the talks by the late Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the late Senator Abraham Adesanya and himself.
“But I am sad, I am very, very sad, that after so many years of development in Nigeria, we are still being reduced to this, under democracy,” he said.
“The first thing we insisted on is that we are not going to be part of the transition programme unless the Electoral Commission became the Independent National Electoral Commission. Unfortunately, after so many years of development, is INEC now independent? No! We insisted, and they agreed.
“That’s how the name came about. Before, we had the National Electoral Commission. We were the ones who said; no, no, we have to have an Independent National Electoral Commission.”
The former minister argued that the electoral body had enjoyed greater independence during the PDP era but had since lost that status.
“Today’s INEC is not independent. Today’s INEC is really a mess. And if you don’t have a good umpire, you can’t have good elections.
And democracy cannot survive if you can’t have good elections. That’s why we are here.
“We are supposed to be having a special convention in a very, very well-organised place. Now the police have taken over the whole area. Are we back to military rule? No,”
Gana maintained that Nigerians deserved better governance and said the party’s objective was to present a credible candidate for the country.
“We are gathered for this because we want to have a presidential candidate to lead our struggle,” he added.
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