Stop threatening democracy, AD warns Northern elders

The Alliance for Democracy has warned the Northern Elders Forum against making inciting statements that could threaten the country’s democracy.

The party said this while reacting to a statement by the forum which gave President Goodluck Jonathan till October to rescue the schoolgirls kidnapped in Chibok, Borno State, or forget about running for re-election in 2015.

The National Chairman of the party, Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa, said this in a statement, on Thursday.

He said the demand by the Northern elders was tantamount to saying that the Peoples Democratic Party should not be allowed to participate in next year’s presidential election.

He said, “The elders should be mindful that they were not warning Jonathan but the PDP – since he cannot make himself his party’s presidential candidate by personal fiat, but through the party’s due process.

“The PDP, like any other party, has a constitutional right to field a candidate of its choice, and if Jonathan is that candidate, it is not the business of anybody or group to threaten him.

“Whoever is against Jonathan’s second term ambition should go to the polls and vote for the presidential candidate of their choice. But one and all must let Nigeria decide through the ballot. To invoke the abducted Chibok girls as a reason why the President should not attempt a second term bid is mere cheap blackmail.

“Just as democracy works according to constitutional provisions in America, the UK or Germany and elsewhere, even when a national disaster has occurred, the Northern Elders must allow democracy to work in Nigeria too, despite the painful Chibok incident.”