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The Action Congress (AC) has accused the Presidency of arm-twisting INEC to immediately disqualify its presidential candidate for April general elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, despite warnings from the electoral body that such action would be illegal.
The Action Congress (AC) has accused the Presidency of arm-twisting INEC to immediately disqualify its presidential candidate for April general elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, despite warnings from the electoral body that such action would be illegal.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, AC said INEC Chairman, Maurice Iwu, the Commission's Legal Department and at least seven of INEC's 11 commissioners were against such move, which would violate the nation's constitution and the Electoral Act.
'Despite the objections, President Olusegun Obasanjo has insisted that the VP be disqualified at all cost, even if such would result in a legal battle, undermine the credibility of INEC to organise free and fair polls in 2007 and even threaten the conduct of the elections," AC charged.
In addition, it is alleged that death threats have been issued against the INEC chairman as part of efforts to intimidate him and the commission into committing what the Presidency knows would be the mother of all illegalities, the party added.
The party said the president's desperate move against Alhaji Abubakar followed the mammoth crowd that greeted Saturday launch in Kano of the VP's presidential campaign and his (VP) ever-growing political profile across the country.
AC re-stated its earlier position that INEC lacked the powers to disqualify any candidate, saying the law was very clear that only political parties can disqualify candidates.
The party said in view of the president's desperation to resort to extra-judicial measures to stop the AC standard bearer, it was calling on all well-meaning Nigerians, as well as the international community not to fold their arms while the country is thrown into chaos.
'If President Obasanjo succeeds in coercing INEC to disqualify Alhaji Abubakar, the unfolding scenario will result in consequences that will be too grave to contemplate and the end result of which no one can predict," AC warned.
'True to his democratic credentials and his avowed faith in the rule of law, our candidate has played by the rules all along, even in the face of unprecedented provocation and persecution by those who are mortally afraid of him," the party said.
AC noted, however, that if others would not play by the rules, the end result would be anarchy and warned that it would not just stand by and allow anyone, no matter how highly placed, to throw the nation into chaos under the guise of fighting a spurious war against corruption.