The National Convention Planning Committee of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of plans to sabotage the party’s convention slated for today.
Reacting to the scheduled visit of President Jonathan to Lagos today for an undisclosed official engagement, the committee in a statement made available by its publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, described the planned visit as an attempt to frustrate the merger plan of four opposition parties in the state.
Expressing its concern in a letter to the Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, the ACN said the visit was ill-timed owing to the fact that such visitations usually had negative impact on vehicular movement in the state, a situation that might mar the convention.
The special convention was called with the sole aim of ratifying the various agreements and decisions reached by major opposition parties to form a broad-based platform that would challenge the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.
But, the presidency yesterday refuted claim by the ACN that the planned visit by President Goodluck Jonathan might be a design to frustrate the party’s planned convention and merger with some other political parties, saying the allegations were baseless.
“The allegation is not only baseless, but another in the series of ‘wolf crying’ that has become the sole strategy and pre-occupation of the ACN. It is clearly a deliberate, further attempt to undermine, ridicule and debase the office of the President of the Federal Republic,” special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati noted in a statement.
National publicity secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed had written a letter which was publicly circulated and reportedly sent to the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, alleging that the planned visit of the president to Lagos was an attempt to scuttle the activities of the party.