The Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) says it has served the Cross River State government 48 hours ultimatum to retract the libelous statement that IPAC are paid agents of blackmail, or face legal action.
The IPAC Chairman, C’River State Comrade Anthony Bissong Attah, disclosed this to newsmen at press conference on Valentine’s day in Calabar, the south south region of Nigeria.
In a well worded rejoinder, the leadership of the organization said they have directed their legal team to immediately sue the government of Cross River State for defamation.
They said failure of the state government to retract the allegation before the expiration of the ultimatum three days ago has been viewed as its endorsement of a court action.
“In our last Monday press conference we x-rayed the security situation of our state vis a vis INEC’s preparation for the election.
“In response to our position, the government of Cross River State published a press statement where IPAC was labeled as paid agents of blackmail.
“Today, we decided to invite you to yet another press conference to give you updates about recent developments in our political landscape.
“In our well worded rejoinder, we gave Governor Ben Ayade 48 hours to retract the libelous statement or face legal action.
“This ultimatum expired three days ago. The failure of the government to retract the allegation has been viewed as his endorsement of a court action.
“Consequently, we have directed our legal team to immediately sue the government for defamation. The statement reads.
The socio-political organization Alledged that there are fresh plans to use security agencies, especially the Nigerian Police to militarize the election by powerful politicians in the state to ensure that the will of the people is truncated.
According to them, the list of police officers deployed to Cross River State has a questionable pedigree. They said, the following officers have been enlisted for election duties in Cross River State; CP Garba Aliyu – Overall Election CP, CP Stanley Ude – South, CP Akinwale Adenirun – Central, and DCP Elias Eliegwu – North.
The group which deeply expressed concern and obviously worried over the deployment of those officers for election duties in Cross River State, noted that the formation of new Tactical Units opposite Cross River State Governors Office is to be trained and used for election duties, to be headed by CSP BAYERO ( from Abuja command )
It acknowledged the fact that, It is a common knowledge that during elections, the Nigerian Police Headquarters as a rule, deploys new officials to different states for election duties.
In the Press statement “we hereby unanimously reject the above list of officers especially the head of the team as it is our considered opinion that this deployment is a well planned agenda to use security to rig the 2023 general election .
“With his dented records of compromise and notoriety for human rights abuses, any election conducted under the supervision of CP Garba Aliyu will no doubt have the imprint of blood.
“We are therefore calling on the Inspector General of Police to immediately review the list of officers to be posted to Cross River State for election duties. We equally restate our earlier demand for the redeployment of the DCP Operations, Francis Idu because of public perception of his ignoble role in the state police command, given the poor handling of the unit under his leadership.
“Now that CP Sule will be out on election duty, we cannot afford the risk of keeping the DCP Operations in the state during election. The group said.
Information made available to Truth Live News also call on Cross Riverians to be vigilant because democracy and free and fair elections are about to be tested in the forthcoming elections.
“For the avoidance of doubt the constitution of Nigerian political parties and our IPAC code lends cupious credence to how a political party chairman can be removed from office and how such vacuum can be filled. It added.