Nigerian opposition candidates disagree over election boycott

Apr 17, 2007, 17:11 GMT

Abuja - Presidential flagbearer of the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party, Muhammadu Buhari, Tuesday in Abuja disagreed with other opposition presidential candidates on a proposal to boycott the April 21 presidential election.

The disagreement arose at a meeting of Coalition of Opposition Presidential Candidates (COPC) which he convened.

The meeting was attended by Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Presidential Candidate of the Action Congress party, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Peoples Party, Attahiru Bafarawa, that of the Africa Democratic Congress, Pat Utomi and some other candidates.

Nineteen other opposition parties were represented at the meeting.

Sources at the meeting told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur that the proposal to boycott the election was recommended by a committee set up last week by COPC, to work out modalities on how the opposition parties would ensure free and fair elections.

The committee urged the coalition not to participate in the election based on what it alleged was a manipulation of the April 14 governorship elections.

The coalition accused the electoral agency, the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies of being biased, and concluded that credible elections could not be conducted in the present atmosphere.

The meeting was later adjourned to enable the candidates to consult with their parties and backers before taking a final decision.

Meanwhile, Balarabe Musa, chairman of the Conference of National Political Parties, a coalition of some 21 opposition political parties, also called for a boycott of the presidential election Tuesday in Abuja.

Musa, who is also the National Chairman of the Peoples redemption Party, said the results of the states legislative and governorship polls of April 14 showed that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party was playing an already written script.