Nigerian Students’ Executive Petitions DSS Over Plot By APC Chieftains To Influence NANS Election With N300million

An executive of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has petitioned the Department of State Services and the Nigerian police.

He petitioned the security agencies over an alleged plan by some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to scuttle the NANS national convention.

The executive, Joshua Danladi, claimed in the petition obtained by SaharaReporters on Wednesday that certain APC chieftains had raised up to N300million to influence the election and to support certain candidates.

According to Danladi, in the letter to the Director-General, Department of State Security Services, the Chief of Staff to the President and the Inspector-General of Police, some students are already boasting of having the backing of an APC state governor and other chieftains.

After the last tenure ended, the NANS national convention that would usher in a new set of executives was slated for between Thursday, August 25, and Monday, August 29, 2022.

Article 15 subsection 5(f) of the law guiding NANS activities say, "accreditation of delegates shall be completed within forty-eight hours of the published arrival date; where this is not completed by any reason of the acts of the accreditation committee, the committee stands dissolved and the convention planning committee shall take over the function and DISCHARGE IT within twenty-four hours."

Comrade Danladi said students from far and near had converged in Abuja, to exercise their franchise despite the prevailing insecurity in the country, compounded by the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The petition partly read, ‘Unfortunately, more than five (5} days since arrival and over two (2) days of the slated date, no sign of kick-starting the process as the Convention Planning Committee and the outgoing executives have largely remained incommunicado.

"We also have it on good authority that the CPC is being hijacked by external political forces within the All Progressive Congress (APC) who are hell-bent on imposing their stooges to lead the students’ movement as we inch closer to the 2023 general elections. Those forces have compromised the CPC and have become willing tools to mortgage the students’ mandate.

"Furthermore, we gathered that the CPC in active connivance with some politically exposed candidates has reached an agreement to prolong the convention as long as it takes until they cash out from frontline APC and from the presidential villa while ignoring the suffering of hundreds of students who are in Abuja for the suppose of the convention who have since been rendered homeless.

"As we speak, one of the politically exposed candidates has so far cashed out over N50million from the APC and he boasts to receive more funding in the coming days with the support of an APC Governor of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

"Equally, the CPC and the APC-endorsed candidate are waiting to receive the sum of three hundred million naira (N300,000,000) only from APC/Presidential Villa and have earmarked to purchase the nearly 300 votes at the cost of one million naira (N1,000,000) only for each vote. These allegations, when confirmed to be true, negates the provision of the constitution of NANS and an affront to free and fair electoral processes and a call for anarchy in the student's Movement.

"We urge you to use your good office to investigate and sanction those found culpable in this grand scheme of intended electoral robbery and to call the CPC to order to proceed with the convention and ensure the conduct of the election as soon as possible to avoid breakdown of law and order at the Federal Capital Territory, and most importantly to caution the political party to steer clear from their meddlesomeness in what is entirely students matters.”