Agwu, Abakaliki
Ebonyi State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, accused the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government in the state of plotting to frame up its leaders in a desperate attempt to silence opposition in the state.
Party Chairman, Tochukwu Okorie, alleged that the state government recently met with leaders of Ebubeagu Security Network and instructed the operatives to frame up PDP leaders in the state.
Okorie disclosed this during a press briefing in Abakaliki.
“We have it on good authority that on February 10, that Ebonyi government called a meeting in which the attendees were essentially leaders of Ebubeagu militia operating in the state, there was a follow-up meeting on February 11.
“These meetings were called to address the nagging issue of security in the state.”
He said the state government was uncomfortable that the PDP had raised an alarm following the incessant incident of brutality and killings attributed to operatives of Ebubeagu.
“It is consequent upon those developments that the meeting of February 12 was called. And in that meeting, it will interest you to know that they come up with following resolutions; that going forward, the only way to stop the PDP and opposition in the state from challenging the brutality Ebubeagu inflicting on citizens of Ebonyi is to begin to implicate leaders of the PDP and other stakeholders who are in opposition to the bad administration and governance in the state.
“This briefing became absolutely necessary so that Ebonyians, Nigerians and, indeed, the whole world will know that they have hatched a plot to link stakeholders of PDP in particular and other opposition party leaders to crime and phantom situations to whittle down the popularity and mass appeal that PDP commands in the state.”
But APC Publicity Secretary in the state, Simbard Ogbuatu, in a reaction, warned the opposition to desist from distracting the APC-led government under the leadership of Governor David Umahi.
He described the issues raised by the PDP as false alarm and urged the public to ignore them.
“They are only trying to distract the governor, because there is no iota of truth in all the issues they raised. The alarm is false and should be ignored,” he said.