The All Progressives Congress and the Federal Capital Territory Police Command are set to clash on Thursday (today) over the insistence of the party to go ahead with its planned protest against the Independent National Electoral Commission in Abuja.
The protest, the APC said, was to register its disapproval of the commission’s perceived failures in the Delta Central Senatorial District bye-election and the ‘inconclusive’ Anambra State governorship poll.
The party, in a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the police had no reason to be opposed to the procession because it was “a patriotic service to the nation.”
It said, “INEC as presently constituted is not capable of organising a free and fair election again in Nigeria.
“If the commission is not checked, its incompetence and conniving acts, could plunge the country into chaos of unimaginable proportions.”
The APC explained that it wrote a letter to the FCT police command and that it requested for police escort to forestall a possible hijacking of the procession by “sponsored hoodlums.”
It said, ‘’To our dismay, however, the FCT Police commissioner did not only turn down our request for police escort but also cheekily advised us to restrict our activity to holding a press conference within our party headquarters to convey our grievances to INEC .
“We reject this very patronising directive from the partisan FCT police command and hereby states that, in the exercise of our constitutional rights, the leadership of the APC will go ahead with its planned peaceful procession on Thursday, November 28 , to express our dissatisfaction with the corruption-ridden INEC and to pass a vote of no confidence on the commission.”
The opposition party said the police should not mistake its letter as a request for permission to stage the procession. It said that law had said no such permission was required.
When contacted, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Altienne Daniel, said the command was not aware of the request for police escort by the APC.
She added that the FCT Commissioner of Police, Femi Ogunbayode, was on casual leave and could not have turned down the request as claimed by the party.
“We are not aware of any request by the party because the CP is on casual leave. I have also asked my superiors in the command and everyone said they were not aware of any request from the party,” Daniel said.
But when contacted again, Mohammed insisted that the APC wrote to inform the FCT police about the protest.
He said that whoever said that the police were not aware of the protest was lying.
“I have a copy of the letter we wrote and the reply of the police. Whoever said that is lying. It (the reply) was signed by a deputy commissioner of police on behalf of the CP,” he said.
Copyright PUNCH.
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