The All Progressives Congress presidential has petitioned Suleiman Abba, inspector-general of police, over the “death-wish” advertorial sponsored by Ayodele Fayose, Ekiti state governor and published on the cover pages of two national newspapers on Monday.
In the petition signed by Rotimi Amaechi, Rivers governor and director-general of the APC campaign organisation, the group “condemned the Peoples Democratic Party and Fayose for portraying its candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, as a dead man walking to scare Nigerians from voting for him in the February 14 election”.
According to the petition, “the portrayal of Buhari as likely to die in office just like past northern leaders such as Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Sani Abacha and Murtala Mohammed was morbid and reckless, and such irresponsible political advert is not only in bad taste, but also capable of undermining law and order in the country”.
The petition further said that the insinuation of death for a man, who is still alive based on unscientific logic or prediction, was capable of causing a breach of the peace across the country.
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The APC campaign organisation’s petition also drew the attention of the inspector-general of police to the fact that Fayose’s advertorial violated the spirit and letter of the Kofi Annan initiative, which had Nigerian political parties and their presidential candidates sign a peace accord.
It therefore urged Abba to investigate the origin of Fayose’s “sinister and inhuman” advertorial and call him to order with a view to preventing a repeat of such provocative publication in the interest of peace.
The APC campaign organsation disclosed that copies of the petition had been sent to the Department of State Services (DSS), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and The Sun and The Punch newspapers.
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