A former Presidential Candidate of the National Conscious Party (NCP) in Nigeria, Chief Dele Momodu has described the decision by the Nigerian government to postpone the elections as illegitimate.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Dele said: “I don’t see any reason why the President postponed the elections.”
“We are hoping that now that they have postponed it, nothing will be done again..” he added
He further accused President Goodluck Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of influencing the postponement of the presidential elections.
The election which was scheduled for February 14th has been postponed to March 28th due to the security reasons.
[contextly_sidebar id=”iQj3O8U6Rm7qGLGIconE2OSvuy8pYqWe”]The six- week delay according to the Nigerian Electoral Commission, will allow a newly-formed multinational force, the opportunity to reclaim areas controlled by Boko Haram.
However Chief Dele who is also the publisher of the Ovation Magazine said the Nigerian Electoral Commission was forced to postpone the election because the PDP anticipated defeat in the elections.
“I suspect that the ruling party saw from all available evidence that it was likely to lose this election and they decided to use the military to intervene on its behalf by saying that they will not be able to provide enough logistics and security for the elections” Chief Dele alleged.
He wondered why the military had suddenly taken a decision to postpone the elections when it said they were very ready for the election and had learnt from their past mistake as widely reported in the vanguard newspapers.
Spokesperson for the PDP in Ghana Ego David in a sharp rebuttal also dismissed Chief Odele’s assertion that the Nigerian government had postponed the country’s elections to promote its political interests.
He said the government should rather be commended for putting in place measures to reduce the activities of the islamist militant group for the past weeks.
“Boko Haram is not growing from strength to strength…,” he insisted.
He further called for collaboration in dealing with the Boko Haram menace, saying “Combating terrorism doesn’t have to do with Nigeria alone just like the ECOWAS Chiarman has said, terrorism is a collective fight so we have to fight”
In a related development, some Nigerians living in Ghana are outraged by the decision by the Nigerian Electoral Commission to postpone their upcoming elections.
A Nigerian who only gave his name as Hola told Citi News Nigerians are unhappy about the postponement, saying “we are not happy with it at all. Nigeria is angry because of that. My family, my friends, my collageues are angry because of that. We want free and fair elections”
Another said Jonathan Goodluck cannot postpone elections because of Boko Haram since he refused to take actions to bring the group’s activities to a halt at the time he was supposed to do so.
“Mr. President did not act when it was necessary. He was supposed to act against Boko Haram long go… He is playing politics with Boko Haram and we are not happy about it”
Prosper also described the Nigerian government’s decision to postpone the election as unnecessary adding that the decision can be attributed to fears of the ruling government losing the elections.
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana