The
All Progressives Congress said on Sunday that it had uncovered a grand
plan by the Peoples Democratic Party and the Presidency to rig the 2015
general elections, especially the presidential poll.
The opposition political party stated
this on Sunday via a statement issued by its Interim National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The party alleged that the
multi-faceted strategy that was being employed by the PDP and the
Presidency, in their desperation to win the 2015 elections at all costs,
included suppression of votes in areas where the
President’s chances
could be slim, using the police and the military.
But the PDP, in its reaction, decried
the claim by the opposition, saying that APC was already afraid of
electoral defeat in 2015.
It said the APC was aware of its limited popularity, adding that there was no way the party could win the election.
Mohammed, however, said that both the
PDP and the Presidency were planning to use what they have tagged a
“Third Force” to deceive Nigerians and project the image of a performing
Presidency.
Other means he alleged the PDP and the
Presidency were planning to rig, Mohammed said, included engaging in
the destabilisation of the APC using moles and fifth columnists;
instigate chaos in the South-West by using those he called the “Old
Afenifere Guards” as well as infiltrate and weaken the socio-cultural
and socio-political organisations in areas they deemed to be
unfavourable to the President.
Mohammed said, the PDP/Presidency’s
grand plot also did not exclude the ruling party itself, as he said both
parties were pursuing a strategy of dealing ruthlessly with
recalcitrant members, including governors and House of Representatives
members.
He said, ‘’The dogged pursuit of this
action of dealing with supposed recalcitrant members has led to
suspensions, expulsions and alienation of some PDP members, and it was
the immediate trigger of the collapse of the party of tattered
umbrella.”
Elaborating on the alleged plot,
Mohammed said the North-East and the North-West had been singled out as
areas where votes must be suppressed in 2015, by creating an enabling
environment for the deployment of ‘’special forces’’ in the run-up to
the 2015 elections.
He said they (PDP and the Presidency)
intend to launch police/military actions in the run-up to 2015 election,
to ensure most of the registered voters in the zones were
disenfranchised.
“The reason these two geo-political
zones have been singled out for ‘vote suppression’ is because of what
the PDP/Presidency called the ‘voting demographics’ in the zones in
2011.
“The North-West had 18,900,543
registered voters in 2011 while the North-East had 10,038,119. By
contrast, the President’s ‘safe support base’ of South-South and
South-East had 8,937,057 and 7,028,560 respectively, the total of which
was less than that of the North-West alone!
“The PDP/Presidency therefore believe
that unless the votes in these two zones are suppressed, and those of
the South-West (14,298,356) stifled one way or the other, the chances of
the President winning re-election are very slim. Needless to say that
these three zones (NE, NW and SW) are considered to be hostile to the
President, hence they must be tamed,” he said.
He said while APC was not bothered by
the desperation of the PDP/Presidency to engage in unfair and foul means
to win elections, he however added that it was astounded that a
democratically-elected President would resort to actions that he said
were far from democratic just to retain power at all costs.
He called on Nigerians to be vigilant as the PDP/Presidency had started to roll out their grand plot.
But the Deputy National Publicity
Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Ibrahim Jalo, while reacting to the APC
statement, told our correspondent on the telephone, that Nigerians
should not bother on the propaganda antics of the APC.
He said the President and the ruling party were not interested in 2015, which, he said, was in the hands of God.
Jalo said, “2015 is in the hands of God
and only Him knows what will happen then. However, let me say that both
the President and the PDP are only interested in the provision of good
amenities for the good people of Nigeria.
“APC is not interested in testing its
popularity and even two years before the general election, it has
started crying wolf where there is none. It is a losing party.
“The APC has lost confidence in itself
and that is why it is crying now even when it has not been beaten. It
should wait till 2015 when it will know that its popularity is on the
pages of newspapers.”
On the alleged plan to suppress votes
from the North-East and North-West, Jalo said that the people of the two
zones were PDP members, adding that there was no way the party and the
Presidency would do anything undemocratic to votes coming from the two
zones.
He said because of the love the
President had for the people of North-East, the President risked his
life and visited Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, during the tick
Boko Haram crisis in the state.
“So, leave APC alone to be making noise.
They are already lamenting even when election, which we consider as
examination in politics, is still far away, the party is already looking
for excuses to cover up its expected failure,” Jalo added.
source: Punch
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