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.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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