The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised alarm over plans by the opposition to use violence to disrupt the Municipal Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory scheduled to hold this Saturday.
This was made known by the party’s Deputy National Chairman, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja, in a press briefing held at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.
Jaja revealed that the party had thoroughly investigated the activities of the opposition and discovered their plan to make use of so called elections observers to rig the forthcoming elections.
“We wish to draw the attention of all Nigerians to an untoward and calculated design by the opposition to truncate credible polls in the Saturday’s Municipal Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory. We are alarmed by the result of our thorough investigations which revealed desperate attempts by the opposition to subvert the will of the people and to engage in violence during the polls. Our investigations show that almost all the 19 election observer groups accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the FCT Area Council election are promoted by known members of the opposition parties.”
“We wish to note that this sad development rather than conduce to conduct of free and fair election, is a deliberate strategy by the opposition to ensure that the will of the people is altered and that the elections are rigged against our party. The PDP is greatly concerned by this covert move by the opposition parties. Their intention is to use these observer groups which they have specifically positioned for a hatchet job against our party and the people,” he said.
The National Deputy Chairman said that the party has informed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the development and hope they take urgent steps to protect the will of the people and democracy.
Responding to newsmen, Jaja said it would be inappropriate for the PDP to name the opposition parties involved in the plot but maintained that the investigation carried out by the party was thorough and revealing.
“We conducted a thorough investigation and found out their plans. When we talk about civil society groups, any organisation can claim to be a civil society group but it’s only when you investigate their activities that you will realize if they are actually what they claim to be. Most of these persons are not out there to monitor elections but want to help the opposition win by all means,” he said.
He dismissed claims by the opposition of PDP and INEC being one and same body describing the fallacy as unfounded.
“From 1999 till date you must have observed that the way INEC is being viewed as being a credible electoral body is when PDP fails election; when PDP fails, nobody talks about it and the opposition has used this as blackmail to continuously cheat PDP out of elections and we have been quiet and absorbed it as a people who want this country to remain united as one,” he said.
Jaja concluded by saying that the avowed commitment of President Goodluck Jonathan to free and fair polls already demonstrated in various elections conducted since 2011 should not serve as an opportunity for the opposition to continually stampede a fraudulent process all Nigerians.