CPC to continue legal battle at tribunal
THE Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) says the first 100 days of President Goodluck Jonathan in office may be too short to assess any administration, but believes that nothing serious has taken place to convince Nigerians that the Federal Government can indeed transform the country as it promised.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday through its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, ACN said the events of the first 100 days of the Jonathan's administration had been "akin to building a structure on sand rather than on rock, adding that such a structure will not endure."
It said the only "achievement" that sticks out like a sore thumb in the administration's first 100 days is the poorly thought out and ill-advised single tenure kite being flown by the President.
"In his inaugural speech, the President exhorted Nigerians to 'look beyond the hardship you have endured. See a new beginning; a new direction; a new spirit'. Unfortunately, the President's unsteady gait as well as his trade mark indecision on critical issues in the past 100 days do not point to a new spirit or a new beginning. They point to a return to the same old tragedy path that brought Nigeria to this sorry past,'' it said.
ACN said: ''The President told Nigerians on May 29 that 'I am mindful that I represent the shared aspiration of all our people to forge a united Nigeria: a land of justice, opportunity and plenty.' But the unity of Nigeria has never been more threatened than it is under his watch, and the country is still far from being a land of justice,'' the party said.
The party also faulted the President's approach to the pervasive insecurity in the country. He said with the Boko Haram menace, the government had not fared well on the matter. And contrary to speculations that the leadership of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) may be forced to withdraw its election petition against Jonathan, the party says it is ready to mobilise its witnesses to prove its claims of irregularities on the polls.
The party, after its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting at the weekend in Abuja, maintained that it had enough evidence to be present before the tribunal to prove its charges.
Briefing journalists at the end of the meeting, CPC National Chairman, Prince Tony Momoh, maintained that the presidential election was flawed with irregularities. He expressed the party's regrets over the tribunal's rejection to its request to access the voting materials.
Momoh said it would have boosted the party's move to prove beyond any doubt that the election was manipulated, adding that the use of forensic experts to examine the ballot papers would have exposed the irregularities, which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) engaged in during the election.
He said though the tribunal had denied the party the opportunity to prove that votes were manipulated, it took the decision to move on with the petition because it felt that as a people-oriented party, CPC would not want to set the country on fire by announcing its withdrawal of the petition, adding that it would assemble its witnesses as demanded by the tribunal to prove its case.
The Guardian