LAI Mohammed
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged Nigerians to hold President Goodluck Jonathan responsible, if the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) spreads further.
The party noted that the President failed to stop a rally held on Saturday in Port Harcourt in support of his 2015 ambition, despite the warnings from individuals and groups.
In a statement yesterday in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said never before had a President sabotaged his administration’s policy and endangered the lives of his compatriots as Dr Jonathan had done over the EVD.
The party said the President, who declared a national emergency on Ebola and advised against large gatherings to prevent the spread of the virus, was the first to flout the advice by failing to stop the rally organised by the so-called Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) in Port Harcourt, a few days after the virus was detected in the city.
This, APC said, happened when contact-tracing was ongoing to find those who might have had contact with the doctor, who had the disease.
It said: “On the altar of political desperation, President Jonathan put the lives of Nigerians in danger. To realise his ambition for re-election, President Jonathan has shown he is ready to sacrifice as many lives of Nigerians as possible. There goes the President’s statement that his political ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian. This President simply says what he does not mean.
“As we said in our statement on August 28, calling on President Jonathan to halt the TAN rallies, especially the one in Port Harcourt, could anyone guarantee that none of those who have had contact with the doctor who died of the disease would attend the rally? That is why we are calling on Nigerians to hold the President responsible, if Ebola spreads more than it has in the country.”
The party noted that after it called for a halt to the TAN rallies, others, including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and frontline lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay, in a clearly patriotic duty, issued similar calls.
The party said: “In fact, the APC in Rivers described such a rally, most appropriately, as a ‘firing squad against the people’. But because he will rather be re-elected than give a damn over the safety of the same people who voted him into office; because he will rather transmogrify than transform, President Jonathan ignored all the calls and allowed the rally to hold. This is an unprecedented act of political desperation.”
APC stressed that for those who might try to spin the issue by saying the President had no control over the organisers of the rally, they should be asked who the rallies will benefit.
It said: “The TAN rallies are government-sanctioned. The TAN rallies are the Jonathan administration’s cunning way of beating the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ban on campaigns for next year’s general elections.
“The TAN rallies highlight the impunity of the Jonathan administration. President Jonathan is the sole beneficiary. He can stop the rallies today, if only he wants to put the nation’s interest above his personal interest.”
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