The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the comment by a former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark, that if the opposition has its way it can poison or kill President Goodluck Jonathan just to take power, is absurd, incendiary and unbecoming of an elder statesman of the chief’s stature.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said Clark’s comment, which was widely reported by newspapers, is the latest in a string of statements by President Jonathan’s supporters that are overheating the polity ahead of the 2015 general elections and are even threatening the peace and unity of the country.
“We have waited for several days to give Chief Clark the opportunity to deny making such a fallacious statement, but he has not done so, which means he was not misquoted and that he indeed meant what he said.
“It is time for the President himself to call his supporters to order for the sake of the peace and unity of our dear nation. They have been threatening fire and brimstone if the President is not re-elected in 2015, as if elections are won by threats. One has even gone as far as saying there will blood on the streets if the President is not re-elected,” it said.
APC said in making his dangerous comment, Chief Clark probably mistook the party for the PDP, which has been described as the nest of killers.
“Our party has never and will never contemplate killing or poisoning President Jonathan just to take power, as Chief Clark carelessly said. We are neither a violent nor an anarchic party. We do not seek power by any means other than through the ballot box. Therefore we reject, totally, the statement by Chief Clark.
“We remind Chief Clark that since President Jonathan was voted into office by Nigerians, they also reserve the right to vote him out of office. This is the way it is done in every true democracy, and heavens will not fall if President Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015. His supporters should put their emotions in check and stop making comments that are downright treasonable,” the party said.
It said it is a mark of the gross partisanship of the security agencies that they have turned a blind eye to all the incendiary comments being made by the President’s men.
“The security agencies, especially the police and the DSS, have busied themselves with harassing and intimidating the opposition. They have engaged in torturing innocent Nigerians for political reasons, while pretending not to know that President Jonathan’s supporters, in particular Mujaheed Asari Dokubo and Chief Clark, have been threatening the very existence of Nigeria through their capricious statements.
“Had the statements credited to these men been made by the opposition, the security agencies would have suddenly become hyperactive. They have failed to make the President’s supporters to realise that no one is above the law,” APC said.
