The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Peoples Democratic
Party of being mortally afraid of the forthcoming elections and thus
involved in subterranean moves to foist an interim government on Nigeria.
The party also accused the PDP of sponsoring the circulation of leaflets
urging the people of Gombe to stay away from the polling booths on
election days or they will be in trouble.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it cannot put anything
beyond the PDP and the Jonathan administration, because of their
desperation to ensure that the general elections do not hold, at all
costs.
It said even the attack on Gombe on Saturday was suspect, wondering how
Boko Haram insurgents will drive on the highway from Maiduguri to Gombe in
a convoy of many vehicles without being spotted or stopped at the myriad
of military checkpoints dotting the area.
APC said it is curious that the Boko Haram terrorists, who have never
mentioned the elections in their regular videos on YouTube, have suddenly
started campaigning against the conduct of elections.
The party also noted that the local government elections in Yobe, one of
the hotbeds of the Boko Haram insurgency, went without any incident in
2013, indicating there has not been a systematic campaign by the
insurgents to attack voters.
“Part of the strategy of the PDP and the Jonathan administration is to
depopulate perceived opposition strongholds through all sorts of dangerous
measures, and this scaremongering, supposedly by Boko Haram, fits into
that strategy. They are also the unseen hands behind the advertisement by
faceless groups urging Muslims to vote for Muslim candidates. It is in
line with their exploitation of religious and ethnic fault lines to divide
Nigerians,” the party said.
APC said the alarm raised by Mike Omeri, the Coordinator of the National
Information Centre, that some female suicide bombers may strike at polling
units during the elections, also fits into the PDP/Jonathan
Administration’s opposition stronghold depopulation strategy.
“It is now very clear to Nigerians that the PDP-led federal government
does not want the forthcoming elections to hold, because it is guaranteed
a shellacking. First the government sponsored a campaign to postpone the
elections because of low PVC distribution. When they realized the number
of PVCs collected was growing and that their argument might no longer be
tenable, they suddenly used security as an alibi, abandoning their earlier
push for the election shift on the basis of low PVC distribution.
“After they succeeded in forcing the postponement, they launched another
campaign for the PVCs and the Card Readers to be jettisoned in favour of
TVCs, because that will allow them to rig if indeed the elections proceed
in spite of them. Those campaigning against the use of PVCs and Card
Readers have forgotten that Ghana successfully used the same technology in
its last elections, and that it is not rocket science,” the party said.
It also accused the PDP federal government of exhibiting the traits of
elections phobia by continuing to clandestinely campaign for an interim
government, even though the Attorney-General of the Federation and
Minister of Justice has publicly denied such moves.
“It is an open secret that as we write this statement, their emissary is
touring the north meeting with Emirs and others to push for an interim
government. It has also been revealed how they plan to use the National
Assembly to seek tenure elongation. Never before has a sitting government
been this desperate to avoid elections. This election phobia by a sitting
government is a first in contemporary history,” APC said.
The party urged President Goodluck Jonathan not to plunge Nigeria into
crisis or give the country the Gbagbo treatment, all in pursuit of
personal interest at the expense of national interest.
“The plot that landed Ivory Coast under Laurent Gbagbo in hot water, and
for which Gbagbo is currently cooling his heels in a holding cell at the
International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, was not as elaborate as
that being pushed by the PDP and the Jonathan Administration. That is why
we are urging them to tread softly and save Nigeria from crisis.
“We know Nigerians have seen through the games being played by the PDP and
the Jonathan Administration. Nigerians and the entire world know those who
are behind the election postponement, the myriad of court cases seeking to
disqualify our presidential candidate, the ongoing efforts to depopulate
opposition strongholds, the devilish advertisements seeking to use
ethnicity and religion to divide Nigerians, the campaign to jettison the
PVCs and Card Readers in favour of TVCs as well as the tenure elongation
and interim government options
”That is why we are calling on all lovers of democracy to be vigilant in
the run-up to the rescheduled polls, and for them to insist that nothing
but the holding of the elections will be acceptable to Nigerians,” it
said.