The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation has described the formation of a uniformed squad by the All Progressives Congress (APC) code-named “Jagaban Army” as a treasonable act and calls for the arrest and questioning of the APC Presidential Candidate, Bola Tinubu.
Kola Ologbondiyan, Spokesperson, Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation, said in Abuja on Monday, that such act is in violation of the 1999 Nigeria Constitution, as amended.
This is coming against the backdrop of a post last Friday, by the APC Youth Leader, Dayo Israel with the caption: “The Wing Marshal of the APC National Youth Wing; and Chief of Army Staff of the Jagaban Army, which coincided with the launch in Abuja.
Olugbondiyan said the Jagaban Army, was apparently set up to disrupt the 2023 general elections and raid the polling units for votes on behalf of APC Presidential candidate, adding that “Bola Tinubu’s act is a direct affront to the Nigeria Armed Forces and other security agencies as well as an assault on the sovereignty of our nation
“It is reprehensible that Tinubu can create a rogue force just for the purposes of undermining the electoral and security arrangements of our nation.
“Our Campaign holds that this nefarious act of the APC Tinubu/Shettima Campaign lend credence to the position of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and well-meaning Nigerians that Tinubu as well as his rank and file has set out to make our nation ungovernable and therafter disrupt the 2023 Presidential election scheduled for February 25, 2023 using his army of ‘Jagabandits’”
He noted that notion of Jagaban Army is a ploy to bring hoodlums, thugs and gangsters together under the cover of the APC and turned them into official militia that will be used to unleash mayhem on the day of election.
“This reckless anti-democratic plot by the ‘Jagabandits’ must also be condemned by all lovers of democracy in Nigeria and across the world over.
“We call on the security agencies to save the lives of Nigerians and protect our electoral process by immediately going after this dangerous formation, arrest those behind this design and save our nation from electoral violence.
“Our campaign counsels Tinubu to note that his Presidential ambition is not a do or die affair and that he should not set the nation ablaze just because Nigerians have rejected him and his party, the APC for their mass failures.
“Nigerians have settled for the PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who continues to exhibit maturity, experience and capacity to deliver, and not even the ‘Jagabandits’ of the APC can cow them to submission.
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The All Progressives Congress (APC) Youth Leader, Dayo Israel, while reacting to the backlash of the “Jagaban Army”, on Monday, explained that the ‘Army’ in the name doesn’t equate the military or paramilitary.
According to him, “the ‘Army’ in the name doesn’t equate the military or paramilitary”
The youth leader said the branding was informed by the “popular regarding of political canvassers as foot soldiers”.
He said the unit was ready to work with others “preaching the message of Asiwaju and winning new converts for the party through peaceful and strategic engagement”.
“The operations of the Jagaban’s Army are fully democratic and centered around well-established democratic persuasion methods in every electoral campaign season.”
He described the body as “a peaceful and democratic course of preaching the achievements and goodwill of the APC and her candidates to bring about electoral victory”
“The branding of a vote mobilization unit as an ‘army’ is neither an anomaly in democratic politics nor a deviation from democratic norms
“The ceremonial outfit worn by the leadership of the ‘Army’ at its inauguration bears no semblance to that of the armed forces nor does it purport to be representative of it.
“That just like Obama’s Army, the Jagaban’s Army is a rebirth of participatory democracy, infused by the energy of millions of Nigerian youths at home and in the diaspora”,
