abubakar-TON.jpg" alt="" />The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has issued an order restricting its members from participating in the meeting summoned by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua with state governors, political parties, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and political stakeholders in the country.

The meeting, which is expected to be held Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja is meant to discuss the controversy trailing the conduct of local government polls.

At its Monday meeting in Abuja, at which 11 political parties were represented, the CNPP's National Chairman, Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, said the council polls were conducted, negating warnings by opposition parties, civil society organisations and well meaning Nigerians that no elections should be conducted in the country until the comprehensive reform of the electoral system.

Musa also condemned Yar'Adua's choice of "only four political parties," the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Action Congress (AC) and the Progressive Peoples Party (PPA), for the meeting, stating that other political parties like the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) met every requirement to be invited to the meeting.

He said: "Consequently, the CNPP is calling on all our members not to attend the meeting called by the Presidency to discuss the widely manipulated local government elections. Nigerians are tired of these consistent dosages of official deception".

Musa alleged that Yar'Adua had not indicated any sincerity in ensuring the electoral reform panel delivered effectively on the peoples expectation of thorough electoral reform, pointing out that rather, Yar'Adua connived with the PDP and directed the INEC and all state governors to conduct council elections on or before 31 December, 2007.Buhari.jpg" alt="" />

"Nigerians had expressed serious misgivings in the appropriateness of holding local government elections by the state governors, majority of whose legitimacy are in question.

"Nigerians had openly asked for an electoral inquiry into the April 2007 general elections, which were widely acknowledged by all stakeholders as a monumental fraud and an insult to democratic principle.

"Though the President himself acknowledged the flaws in the elections, he established an hamstrung electoral panel in October 2007, which is now evidently a subterfuge to cover up the electoral misdeeds of his party and that of his government.

"Since the inception of the panel, there has not been anything to indicate the President was ever sincere in ensuring he became the last beneficiary of the electoral terrorism; a past-time that has sadly become the state policy of the PDP.

"Rather, in late September 2007, he (Yar'Adua) participated in a meeting of his party which directed all its governors to hold local government elections on or before 31 December, 2007," Musa said.

Action Congress (AC) National Secretary Dr. Usman Bugaje alleged at the meeting the President never meant to carry the opposition along, buttressing Musa's comment that Yar'Adua political activities since the past eight months were "mere survival strategies" intended to outwit Nigerians' plea for a popular government.

"First within the Nigerian law which the President swore to uphold, could the local government elections be held without the release and display of the voters' register? Second, shouldn't the Presidency and by extension the PDP-led states have waited for the outcome of the various electoral challenges at the tribunals?

"How can anyone give what he does not have? Really couldn't they have waited also for the outcome of the electoral reform panel if they had actually believed in their reasons of setting it up? Bugaje queried.

"The PDP-led government has purportedly conducted local government elections in which over 300 lives were lost in the process. Will these planned meetings resuscitate these Nigerians? Nigerians are no longer deceived.

"They know the Presidency was awarded, so also were 800 out of 990 state house of assembly seats, also 260 out of 360 house of representatives seats and finally 86 out of 109 senate seats. Nigerians know the PDP is intent in foisting a one–party state in the country.

"We believe free, fair and transparent elections cannot be attained in the country without a comprehensive electoral reform that includes an inquiry into the flaws of the 2007 elections as well as imposition of sanctions and all that enabled them.

"It is instructive the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Maurice Iwu, whose agency co-ordinated the massive rigging of the election and who Nigerians have roundly called to resign or be relieved of his position, is one of those invited by the Presidency to this meeting.

"Yet APGA, the political party in government in Anambra State and other registered political parties were excluded from a meeting purportedly called to proffer solutions to the electoral problems at the grassroot level in the country. Nigerians are tired of these dosage of official deception," the CNPP said.
 
Lagos - 15/01/2008

Panapress