Benue guber: Aondoakaa kicks over APC voluntary withdrawal form

Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mike Aondoakaa, has expressed strong disapproval over the letter of voluntary withdrawal attached to the expression of interest and nomination forms for aspirants seeking elective offices on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The former AGF who is a governorship aspirant in Benue State on the platform of the APC deplored the voluntary withdrawal form tagged,  “Form 18” while speaking with journalists after submitting his nomination forms.

The form which aspirants, particularly presidential hopefuls have said was meant to bully them to accept a consensus plot read in part: “I hereby voluntarily withdraw my candidacy from the contest. My withdrawal is in the best interest of our great party, the All Progressives Congress.”

Aondoakaa who disclosed to newsmen that he did not fill the form warned that it has dire consequences for any candidate on the platform of the APC as his mandate could be annulled through a court pronouncement.

He noted that such form could be presented in Court that such candidate actually withdrew from the race and did not participate in the election.

He said:”Unfortunately, I did not sign and I sought clearance. The implication is a two way traffic. If you sign that agreement now and you win election and the opponent come to know that you signed the agreement, I can bet you your election will be invalidated.

“If you sign an agreement you have withdrawn from the race, assuming you win the election, you participate in the general election. The opposition party will file an action that you did not partake in the election and when that form is subpoenaed, it is produced you have withdrawn from the election.

So you can not be part of it. So, I think what the leadership of the party intended is to have that withdrawal in the case at the time of primaries people want to withdraw in compliance with the Electoral Act, they just fill in there and a Commissioner for oaths will endorse it. “It can not be intended that you withdraw before you participate, it looks absurd because if you win the election, the election will be invalid.”

Speaking on insecurity in the North Central state occasioned by farmers-herders clashes, the former Minister of Justice said no ethnic group should be stigmatized as all hands must be on deck to confront the security challenge which he maintained was not peculiar to Benue State.
“Benue is not the only one with insecurity. Insecurity is all over the country.

The insecurity started during our time when I was in the office because of the collapse of the government in Libya people moved with small weapons down to South Sahara, down to our region. And most of them who were in the Libya Army were blacks.

So, after Gaddafi was overthrown, the new government and you know that there was no strong government in Libya and there was kind of persecution and most of the soldiers ran with light weapons and they came in. “The insecurity is an external aggression that is spreading within the country but it is something that after some years it will go.

“We will overcome it and that is why I will not expect insecurity to be something a politician will use. There are many valid things to use. You don’t talk security on the pages of newspaper and you also don’t shout security. Something that governors should join hands with the federal government to find a solution. It is a delicate issue.

It is something that started during our time and we were not loud about it. We had cooperation from the governors that time. I was the Attorney General, we had issues and we were resolving them. I don’t know why others make news out of it. Because if you say it is only Benue it isn’t correct. “You have happenings in Plateau, Katsina, Zamfara.

The next set of governors, which I hope to be in the North should come together and form a strong security buffer to protect our northern part of the country because the influx of these criminals is coming more to us. It is not something you will say I am APC, I am PDP then you start looking for a tribe to blame.

In Benue if you say Fulani are killing us what will Masari say in Kastina? They are Fulani but the attacks are more vicious. It is something that goes beyond accusations amongst ourselves and be able to solve the problem once and for all.”

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