Aliyu Machika
27 September 2007
Abuja — The leadership of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) yesterday followed up on the withdrawal of its presidential election petition by banning all its state chairmen and other loyal members from serving as witnesses in its presidential candidate General Muhammad Buhari's on-going petition at the election tribunal.
A top ANPP officer who sought anonymity told our reporter that the party has already reached out to all its state chairmen and other members who were earlier arranged to appear before the presidential election petition tribunal and told them to
desist from doing so.
According to him, the decision was made by the party's national leadership, after which a directive was given to all the state chapters to comply.
ANPP's National Publicity Secretary Mr. Emmanuel Eneukwu, who confirmed the development to newsmen yesterday, said since ANPP as a party had withdrawn from the election petition, then its witnesses, including the 36 state party chairmen, would have nothing to do with General Buhari's petition.
"If any of the state chairmen or any other members of the party who are to serve as the witnesses show up, then it is voluntary, not on the prompting of the party. The party decision is very clear to all its officers at all levels," he said.
But the secretary of the Buhari Campaign Organization (TBO), Engr. Buba Galadima, said the campaign organization was not aware of the arrangement. He said they believe that people want Buhari and they are ready to sacrifice everything for him. "All these things that they do would not help them. More than 99% of the members of the ANPP are fully in support of Buhari, because they do not support what the party leadership is doing. So, we are sure that they will serve as witnesses to Buhari at the tribunal."
"What they are trying to do is to cause further confusion in the party and they would not succeed. Buhari is in the court and he will continue with the case to its logical end. We are optimistic that justice will prevail," Galadima added.
However, Eneukwu insisted that the party National Chairman was directed by the party hierarchy to pull out of the case since Buhari had dissociated himself from the party, and has refused to carry it along in the petition. He also said the decision was reached so that Chief Ezeoke would not be seen as a clog in the wheel of progress of General Buhari's petition, more so when the presidential candidate had said he had nothing to do with either the party or his running mate, because he longer trusts them.
He said, "This thing is like a marriage. If either of the spouses is suspecting the other, they could decide to end the marriage, otherwise, a child that will be the product of the marriage if they should continue will be a controversial product, meaning a bastard. General Buhari has decided to stay aloof and does not interact with the party. He sees himself as sole administrator, when we should be talking to each other and strategizing. It follows therefore that with the withdrawal of our National Chairman, impliedly, he ceases to be General's vice-presidential candidate. Now let's see how the General will go about his petition. We wish him good luck."
Regarding the absence of some of ANPP's nominees from the ambassadorial list, the ANPP image maker said, "We just saw the list sent to the Senate today. We are still studying the situation. The party will find out what the problem is." He however dismissed insinuations that the list might cause confusion within the party, which may affect the agreement on GNU. He said "ANPP will be on top of the situation and find out the reason for the non-inclusion of the names of our other nominees"
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