Afenifere Group Backs President Jonathan For Second Term In Office.

Thee Afenifere group at the residence of its leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti in Akure yesterday endorsed president Goodluck Jonathan for second term in office.

National Secretary of Afenifere, Chief Seinde Arogbofa, said the endorsement was to allow President Jonathan to complete the transformation agenda and implement the decisions of the National Conference.

He said: 

“Afenifere is a socio political association. We have always spoken out our minds on any matter that affects our country. We therefore want to say it loud and clear that after considering so many things, the Nigerian constitution inclusive, we see you for now as the best option to continue as the president of our dear country.”

“Consequently, we call on all well-meaning Nigerians to join us,’’ he added

President Jonathan said he was committed to implementing the decisions of the national conference before the end of the first year of his second term, if re-elected.

“We will not play politics with the report’’, he said.

The president also said he would not relent in the fight against insurgency and would not transfer it to the next administration.

The Yoruba race, he said, was key to Nigeria’s development and his administration would continue to work with the people for national development.

The president said his administration recorded milestones in aviation, road construction, education and transportation and would do more.

According to him, the administration completed 25,000 kilometres of roads, from the 5,000km it inherited and promised to complete the remaining 10,000km.

He thanked the Afenifere for the endorsement which he described as novel in the activities of the group.

“We will achieve more for Nigerians. All we want is the support of the people. We will not disappoint you.” He said.

In attendance apart from the host, were Governor Olusegun Mimiko, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Olu Falae, Senator Iyiola Omisore, Chief Kole Omololu and others.

In a communique the group called for the shift of the elections.

They also called on people in the South-West not to support candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the election.

The communique reads in Part: “The constitution says election should hold not earlier than 150 days to handover date and not later than 30 days. INEC has chosen February 14. For us, May 29 is sacrosanct, there is no controversy over this.

“Within those days between February 14 and 30 days to May 29, INEC has a window to make sure that most voters are not disenfranchised. If INEC is able to give all registered voters their PVC before February 14, all well and good.

“Meeting viewed with seriousness the sheer incompetence on the part of INEC. The INEC that wanted to create 30,000 polling units few weeks to the election has yet to distribute almost 30 million voter cards. When you look at the table INEC has given, what they tell us is that in each state, this is the PVC received, hiding the total number of registered voters.

“As at today, over 15 million voters out of the one collected have not received their cards. This is 54 million. There are 14 million voter cards that are yet to arrive the country. If we put them together, it is almost half of the total electorate that are yet to collect their voter cards.

“The assurance by the INEC chairman that he will distribute cards a day to the election is not reassuring. If you have failed to do it before now, what is the assurance that he is going to do it now?

“We want to warn that any election conducted on the basis of disenfranchising almost half of the electorate, the outcome will not be credible or acceptable.” culled