Sowore Reacts To Exclusion From Presidential Debate

- Says ‘This Is Grave Injustice’

The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore has knocked the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) for excluding his name from the 2019 presidential debate.

The BON and NEDG had announced that only five political party will participate in debate which comes up on 14th December, 2018.

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The statement signed by Eddi Emesiri, executive Secretary of the NEDG, said the participating parties are Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Young Progressives Party (YPP).

This means the presidential aspirants expected at the debate are Oby Ezekwesili, Fela Durotoye, Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and Kingsley Moghalu.

Asides Sowore, Donald Duke of the Social Democratic Party; Tope Fasua, and were among the host of others excluded.

In his reaction, Sowore in a statement by his Dr. Malcolm Fabiyi, Director-General of the TakeItBack Movement/Sowore 2019 Campaign, described his exclusion as grave injustice.

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He further demanded that the criteria used in selecting participants be publicly announced.

The statement read, “We demand to know the criteria that were used for selecting the parties that will participate in the debates.

“The AAC is one of the three largest parties in Nigeria. In fact, we were within the top three parties in the online poll that was organised by Channels TV to determine the participants in the presidential debates. We demand that the unaltered results of that poll be published.

“It is unconscionable that our candidates will be left out of the VP and Presidential debates when smaller political parties that fared worse in the polls, and do not have the reach or strength that our party commands across the country, were included.

“We also note that our presidential candidate has won every major independent and objective poll against the candidates from the alternative parties. Yet somehow, those parties made it to the debates while our candidates did not.

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“We demand that NEDG and BON publicly declare the criteria that were used for selecting the participants. Any debate about Nigeria’s future and the 2019 elections that does not include the AAC is a farce. Nigerians cannot be fooled.

“We expect that this grave injustice will be rectified immediately, ahead of the VP debates on December 14. Nigerians must not be cheated out of a robust debate about our nation’s future. Nigeria MUST progress.”

Similarly, Sowore, on Facebook said, “First they excluded @aacparty from the signing of Peace Agreement &Memorandum of understanding by presidential candidates & party chairmen in Abuja today, just emerged also they don’t want me to participate in the presidential debates, they claim I am out of control and may spill what I know about these oldies publicly during debates. These old guards still don’t get it!”

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