ACN rejects troops deployment

Posted by admin Action Congress of Nigeria, National Politics, Party Politics, Raw Politics Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Troops deployment during elections is wrong, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) said yesterday.

The Federal Government said on Tuesday that it would send in soldiers to fight thugs during the general elections, which begin on Saturday.

The Council of State at its Tuesday meeting endorsed the proposal.

But, to the ACN chairman Chief Bisi Akande, the move is a design by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to manipulate the elections. He described the decision as “barbaric”. Akande spoke in Yola, Adamawa State capital during the party’s presidential campaign rally. Yola is the home town of the party’s presidential candidate, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

Also in a statement in Lagos, ACN National Publicity Secretary Lai Mohammed said the planned deployment of troops is a continuation of the intimidation tactics of the PDP government.

He wondered why soldiers who are trained to fight wars are being drafted into a purely civil matter like elections.

ACN said: “The deployment of troops creates an atmosphere of warfare, which in turn heats up the polity. That’s why it is not a common occurrence in other climes, during elections. Ours should not be different.

‘’In Nigeria, the reason the PDP-controlled Federal Government will want to deploy the military is not to stem the rising cases of violence which, in any case, are caused by the intolerance of the incumbent PDP governors in the various states where the party holds sway. The simple reason is to use the military to intimidate the opposition and pave the way for rigging.

‘’We are therefore astonished that the Council of State will rubber stamp this PDP-orchestrated decision to deploy the military for the forthcoming polls,’’ the ACN said.

The party said it would also be difficult for the soldiers to checkmate the PDP in its “devilish rigging plan” because the leader of the party, President Goodluck Jonathan, is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, which pre-supposes that their (soldiers’) loyalty will be to him.

-The Nationwp_posts