The Labour Party (LP) has towed the line of many other political parties – most recently the Alliance for Democracy – in adopting incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate ahead of the Saturday, March 28, 2015 presidential elections.
The LP made it decision known on Wednesday, March 11, 2015 following a National Working Committee (NWC) meeting held in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Tuesday, March 10, 2015.
National Chairman of LP, Abdulkadir Salam while making the decision public said the party was reasonably convinced that President Jonathan was the man for the job given the success of the transformation agenda and his purposeful leadership.
Salam also derided the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, saying he was too old to rule Nigeria, considering the fact that the youth had majority of the population.
While rejecting the use of card readers for the elections, Salam called for the use of military, citing the security situation.
He said: “The nation is not ready for this technology now, during the Osun and Ekiti elections, Prof. Atahiru Jega categorically stated that the card readers cannot be used for very sensitive elections like that of Osun and Ekiti.
“In our own view of election sensitivity, the presidential election is more sensitive and crucial and we cannot do anything capable of causing confusion and therefore it should not be used.
“I want to state emphatically, that the deployment of military personnel to provide security at 2015 polls cannot be overemphasised. We are in a state of war; considering the security challenges facing the nation now, it is important and fundamental that the military be deployed to ensure peaceful elections and protection of lives of electoral officials and party agents during elections. The presence of the security personnel at strategic locations on election day would curtail the issue of rigging and snatching of electoral materials.”
