Federal government plotting to sabotage smooth handover - APC alleges

The All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday accused the out-going President Goodluck Jonathan administration of plotting to hinder a smooth handover of power to the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) on May 29. President Goodluck Jonathan had, on Wednesday, accused the APC of acting like a parallel government and trying to stampede his administraton out of office by making impossible demands in the terms of reference of the President-elect’s transition committee.
Briefing newsmen after the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday, Minister of National Planning, Abubakar Suleiman, a member of Jonathan’s transition committee, said the council frowned at the terms of reference of the in-coming government and warned that the President’s magnanimity should not be construed as cowardice. He said the council agreed that Dr Goodluck Jonathan remains the President of the country until May 29 and the in-coming government should avoid creating a parallel government.

Justifying its claim that the Jonathan administration was plotting to hinder a smooth transition of power, APC said: “While the outgoing government had earlier issued a memo to all ministries, departments and agencies to make sure their handover notes are ready by April 20, the same government has now reversed itself and said the handover notes will not be ready until May 14.

“With the new date, the Buhari transition committee will have little or no time to take a thorough look at the handover notes or seek clarification on knotty issues, effectively handing it (Buhari Transition Committee) a fait accompli as far as the handover notes are concerned. This does not augur well for a smooth transition and gives the impression that the outgoing administration is trying to hide something. “By its dilly-dallying on the date for the readiness of the handover notes from the MDAs, the administration’s posturing that it is ready to hand over has been exposed as nothing but a smokescreen.”

Responding yesterday to President Jonathan’s accusation, the APC in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said it was becoming apparent that the Jonathan administration will not fully cooperate with the incoming government, despite its public posturing in that regard.

The party also described as “an act of hostility and a patently-misplaced aggression the unnecessary vituperation against the incoming Buhari administration by the Jonathan government, ostensibly because of the terms of reference of the Buhari transition committee but in reality part of an orchestrated plot to sabotage the transition.” It rejected the continued blackmail by the Jonathan administration as a result of President Jonathan’s concession of defeat, wondering whether the concession, gracious as it was, has now become a shield for all wrong doings. The party said: “We are sick and tired of being blackmailed by the Jonathanians.

Gen. Buhari won the March 28th Presidential elections fair and square, having satisfied both constitutional and other statutory requirements. “We have no apology for our victory, and the concession of defeat – while it may have increased the political stock of President Jonathan – has by no means diminished the historic and emphatic victory of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress.”