ABUJA—The All Progressives
Congress, APC, presidential aspirant
and former Head of State,
Gen.Muhammadu Buhari; APC National
Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun and
Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, yesterday, led thousands of
party supporters in a protest rally in
Abuja, accusing the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP-led Federal
Government of playing politics with
Boko Haram. The protest tagged ‘Salvation Rally’,
was aimed at drawing global attention
to what the opposition party
described as deliberate hijack of the
Nigeria police and other security
agencies by the ruling PDP. According to them, the rally was
essentially a clarion call against the
increased spate of insecurity, killings,
corruption, and police brutality against
official opposition. They also accused President Goodluck
Jonathan and the PDP of gross
incompetence and unprecedented
display of impunity. Others at the event which started at
the Eagle Square in Abuja through to
the Police headquarters, were former
governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye
Oyinlola; APC’s deputy national
chairman, North-East, Senator Shuaibu Lawal; Senator Ali Ndume, Shaba
Lafiagi and Senator Gbenga Ashafa. Speaking at the rally, the opposition
leaders took turns to lambast the
Federal Government, saying that
President Jonathan has failed
Nigerians in all ramifications. Our demands—APC leaders The first to speak was Governor
Amaechi who told the crowd, mainly
APC supporters, that the rally would
mark the end of PDP’s impunity in the
country. According to him, restoring the
withdrawn security details of the
Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal
and stopping the insurgency in the
North-East amongst others were the demands President Jonathan must
accede to. He said: “Today will mark the
beginning of our resistance to the
President’s attempt at owning the
Nigeria Police and keeping the military
in his pocket. They are either the
Nigeria Police or Goodluck Jonathan’s Police. They must choose one from
today. Today, all of us must decide as a
nation whether we will allow the
President to continue to disobey court
orders. The court has said that he
should give back the Speaker his security details, and the President has
disobeyed. “Today, the President must tell us why
our brothers and sisters are dying in
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states and
they are here enjoying in Abuja. The
President must answer that; why is he
comfortable and Nigerians are dying. Today, the insult of what they called
stomach democracy must stop. This
stomach infrastructure must stop. “Today is the choice to stop the
President from defeating our interest
to be Nigerians, the interest to become
responsible for our own lives and
choose their president. Today, the
President must tell us why he stopped INEC from distributing the polling units
on population basis. Today, the
President must tell us whether he is
our president, regional president or an
ethnic president. “It is your choice to make. I am a
governor but I am also a citizen. I
think as citizens of Nigeria, today is the
beginning for a struggle for
democracy. You know we don’t have
democracy any more in Nigeria. What we have in Nigeria now is diarchy.
Diarchy is a government headed by a
civilian but under the support of the
military. Today the President sits with
the military against you and I. Today,
we are told that the military will take over our elections. We must stop them
today. It is your choice to make.” Vote out PDP in 2015 — Buhari
APC Members and Supporters during
the Salvation Rally by the party in
Abuja yesterday Photos Abayomi
Fayese APC Members and Supporters during
the Salvation Rally by the party in
Abuja yesterday Photos Abayomi
Fayese Also speaking, former Head of State,
Gen. Buhari asked the people to vote
the PDP out of power next year. “The aim of this rally has already been
explained by the chairman, the
Governor of Rivers State, Chief
Amaechi and the subsequent
speakers have already explained why
we are here. This is supposed to be part of the series of activities that the
APC has lined up between now up to
the general elections in 2015. “We started here in Abuja because this
is the federal capital. It belongs to all
Nigerians. It is placed in the centre of
the country. These activities will be
conducted in the states and then it will
continue until we go to general elections. “Our concern is the lack of
performance of the Federal
Government. I will like those of you
that have the time and the capacity to
reflect on what the PDP has done to
this country from 1999 to date. Try and find out what was the state of
infrastructure in 1999, what it is now
and what we have earned between
then and now. It is then it will dawn
on you how corrupt, inefficient and
indisciplined the PDP is. “The PDP cannot run from
responsibility. They cannot escape
from the position they put Nigeria.
Now, we are in extremely very bad
shape. This country is insecure. This
country is getting bankrupt and it is merely because of corruption and
incompetence. APC is out to make sure
that we stop lousy system by voting
PDP out. Vote out the PDP next year. If
you want a secure and efficient
Nigeria, you just have to do that. No alternative. Make sure you get your
permanent voters cards.” Say no to impunity — Odigie-Oyegun,
Gbajabiamila Cataloguing what he described as the
“sins” of the PDP-led government, the
national chairman of APC, Oyegun
said: “Now, let us be clear. What exactly are
we asking for? An end to the raging
insurgency that is daily killing and
maiming our compatriots. An end to
the impunity that permeates the
Jonathan administration. An end to the massive corruption that has left
our compatriots impoverished in the
midst of plenty. An unambiguous
effort to ensure that 2015 elections
will be free and fair.” He continued: “What you are seeing
here today, which is the first stage of
the occupation of Abuja, is just a
warning shot. If we do not see any
discernible change of attitude on the
part of the government, then we will move to the next stage on the list of
actions that our party intends to take
to stop the rot being perpetuated by
the PDP-led Federal Government. We
are therefore using this opportunity to
alert Nigerians and the international community to what is undoubtedly a
set of carefully-set booby traps on the
path to free and fair elections next
year. On a similar note, the minority leader
of the House of Representatives, Femi
Gbajabiamila also lamented what he
called the regime of impunity in
Nigeria, saying that time has come for
change. “This rally has been tagged salvation
rally. There is a reason to that and you
all right here are part of the salvation
army.” FG frustrating elections, security —
Onu Former national chairman of ANPP, Dr.
Ogbonnaya Onu in his contribution
chided the PDP-led government,
saying its polices in the last 16 years it
has held power was to frustrate the
conduct of free and fair elections. “Today is a very unique and important
day in the history of our country. The
APC is tired about the way Nigeria has
been run in the past 16 years. There is
need for change for the sake of our
children. “If Ghana can organise free and fair
elections, Nigeria should. If Senagal
can organize free and fair elections,
Nigeria can. If Zambia can organise
free and fair elections, Nigeria must. “Today, APC is calling on Nigerians to
make it mandatory on the ruling party
that the general elections of 2015
must be free and fair. We are tired of
the execuses they are giving about
the insurgency in the North-East. For too long, they told us that they
couldn’t act because Boko Haram was
merely striking and going back into
the bush. Now, the insurgents are
coming out, over-running our cities
and they control our cities. What has made news in Nigeria recently is not
our cities falling under the control of
Boko Haram but that hunters are
liberating towns of Nigeria. “This is a great embarrassment to the
nation. This puts our military that we
know are capable, who have
distinguished themselves in military
expeditions all over the world, peace
keeping and so on, we know that the military is capable but we know that
there is a voice behind that is making it
difficult for them to act. For the sake of
Nigeria, let us make sure that the
interest of Nigeria is put first in
everything.” Protest taken to police headquarters Meanwhile, the rally later sprawled
outside the perimetres of the Eagles
Square to the city with most
supporters of the party carrying
different placards which read “looters
of treasury; friends of Jonathan; “Leave military out of elections”, “we
are crying for our Chibok girls, Malabu
oil scandal, police pension heist and $
20b missing oil money, kerosene
subsidy scandal, private jet scandal”. Outside visiting a junction close to
Transcorp Hilton Hotel, the protesters
also went to the headquarters of the
Nigerian police to register their
concern. But the authorities barred them from
accessing the office of the Inspector-
General of Police, IGP. This consequently prompted the
deployment of more police officers
within and around the venue of the
event, even as a police helicopter
hovered above.
www.nigerianews24.com

Haba

Jonathan has a record of promoting illegality, he withdrew the security details of a man constitutionally elected as the speaker of the house of representative and give security detail to a suspected boko haram sponsor. Jonathan has no respect for our constitution.

Any which way....gej till 2019 till all these supporters of APC get brain

As usual Amaechi leading the pack. Wish I was able to see the protest. APC has only one ideology and that is to keep raising alarm to deceive the masses and so far they seem to be doing well cos GEJ doesn't have a good PR team to tackle these things. A good example of hypocrisy is there ability to do the protest peacefully yet the person they are accusing of impunity had the power to use the same police to stop them but he didn't. Let them go to the polls to vote him out, that's if they can. They want to raise alarm now so that when they lose the election they will say they said it. Chai, Nigeria. Smh

I have never seen a fool like Amaechi nd his co hunters, instead of this people to be promoting their action plan all they want to is to go rround d states to tell us the lack of
performance of the Federal
Government, is that what we want to hear for Christ sake, we all in dis country, if d federal government is not performing we should knw by now, but hey! Again if Apc will do better we don't know, bcus they have not come up with any plan whether reasonable or unreasonable! What do they benefits in castigating nd painting d FG black when they re not even better? Nd since when did Amaechi starts obeying d court? Let me not talk about amaechi bcus I will be doing him a great favor by calling his name that's all he Eva wanted, to always be in d lips of every nigeria, they should just get a life nd put their head straight. Dis is definitely not how to be any opposition, GEJ pockets d police, didn't amaechi pocket river state house of assemble? He better stop taking those drugs

If we offer to give them arms and ammunition, and offer to transport them to the North East, will they accept the offer. After all, they have a general to lead them to battle

Salvation ko, saviour ni

brainpower:
As usual Amaechi leading the pack. Wish I was able to see the protest. APC has only one ideology and that is to keep raising alarm to deceive the masses and so far they seem to be doing well cos GEJ doesn't have a good PR team to tackle these things. A good example of hypocrisy is there ability to do the protest peacefully yet the person they are accusing of impunity had the power to use the same police to stop them but he didn't. Let them go to the polls to vote him out, that's if they can. They want to raise alarm now so that when they lose the election they will say they said it. Chai, Nigeria. Smh

how is APC deceiving the masses?? Are you a Nigerian or a Sudanese..that you can't witness the rot in these govt.