Proof your allegation, AC tells Jonathan

Source: africanexaminer.com

Abuja Fri. Feb. 19, 2010 African Examiner -The Action Congress (AC) has challenged

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan to identify those whom he accused of engaging in a

campaign of calumny against him, if indeed such a campaign is real.

In a statement issued in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,

the party said the call became necessary because the Acting President claimed in a

statement issued by his Spokesman that 'we know those behind the publications in the

media against Jonathan.'
You would recall that the Acting President through his spokesman had said that ''the first

installment of the planned and well coordinated media onslaught against the Acting

President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, was published in a national newspaper alleging

that he (the Acting President) approved the expenditure of a whopping N300 billion, for

both pro-Yar'Adua rallies and those that were in his interest.”

In a swift reaction AC stated that ``Our stand is that since such people are known, their

identities must be revealed to all Nigerians so they can be checkmated. We say this

because governments have always resorted to this kind of blanket statement to point

accusing fingers at the opposition, cow them and then abridge their constitutional right of

freedom of expression. We hope that the statement is not a sign of things to come, we

hope it does not signal an ominous beginning.
``We want to give Acting President Jonathan the benefit of the doubt by believing that he is

not crying wolf where there is none, and that he is not about to lead Nigeria down the path

of dictatorship and intolerance,''
The party said it suspected that the shadowy group being referred to in the statement must

be those taking refuge under the tattered umbrella of the badly-splintered PDP, since they

are the ones that have access to limitless resources with which they can mount such a

campaign - having dipped their hands in the public till for so long!

``The PDP is the custodian of folks who have access to limitless, ill-gotten resources which

they have not used for the public good but to feather their nests.

``We in the opposition have never hidden our identity and have never failed to make

constructive criticism and patriotic interventions when necessary, even when reactionary

elements have been uncomfortable with such interventions,'' AC said.

The party further stated that for the avoidance of doubt, it stands by its earlier statement

that the resolution making Jonathan Acting President is in clear breach of the constitution,

albeit and expedient and timely political intervention.

``We are aware that this stand was not popular when we spearheaded it, but we are

vindicated that many discerning Nigerians have now gravitated towards it. The party still

maintains its position that the only way to cure this breach of the constitution is by

(1) Amending Section 145 of the constitution or
(2) By the Federal Executive Council invoking Section 144 of the constitution.

``And in order to avoid a recurrence of this situation, there must be a wholesale

amendment of Sections 144, 145, 189 and 190 of the 1999 constitution,'' it added.

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