From Romanus Ugwu, and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of orchestrating violence across the county, with intention to disrupt the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
Spokesperson of the party, Debo Ologunagba, at a press conference, yesterday, in Abuja, decried the upsurge in attacks on facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) saying the masterminds sought to frustrate the electoral umpire from conducting next year’s polls.
He said intelligence at the disposal of the opposition party indicated that attacks on INEC facilities were aimed at preventing newly registered voters from collecting their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVCs), destroying the PVCs, as well as cripple the capacity of INEC to conduct free elections.
Ologunagba alleged there was a nexus between the charge by APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, to his supporters in London, that power is not served ala carte and the increase in attacks on INEC facilities.
He recalled that the APC candidate, in a closed-door meeting in London with his supporters, earlier this month said: “Political power is not going to be served in a restaurant, it is not served a la carte. It is what we are doing, it is being determined, you do it at all cost, fight for it, grab it, snatch it and run with it.”
The PDP said in response to this directive, APC leaders and members have activated plots to derail the electoral process through orchestrated violent attacks in various states of the country. The party said the target was to trigger a nationwide security emergency situation, instil fear and make it appear in-conducive to conduct elections in the country.
“Part of the plot is the current attacks on the facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in various parts of the country as witnessed in Ogun, Osun and Imo States where sections critical to the conduct of elections particularly those connected to the collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) were targeted and destroyed. Also, our party has been made aware of plans by the APC to orchestrate attacks in other states particularly Kogi and Delta, some states of the South East as well as parts of the North with the view to subverting the electoral process in as many states as possible.”
“The design it to create tension across the country to validate a narrative that elections cannot hold, then orchestrate a constitutional crisis with a view to justifying a shifting of the elections and perpetuate certain APC elements in office beyond May 29, 2023.”
The opposition spokesman, while calling on the security agencies to investigate the APC over the attacks on INEC offices, noted that Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, INEC boss, stated recently that if attacks on its offices continue till January and February, the commission may not be recover from them.
“The PDP, therefore, alerts the security agencies to take immediate steps to investigate and stop the APC on its vicious plot to derail our democratic process. The PDP again demands that President Muhammadu Buhari should call Asiwaju Tinubu and his party members to order so that Nigerians can peacefully choose their next president through a free, fair, transparent and credible electoral process.
“The choice of who becomes the president of Nigeria rests on the will of the people through the free exercise of their votes and the APC presidential candidate should come to terms with the resolve of Nigerians to vote in the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar as the next president,” PDP said.
•APC urges security agencies to investigate PDP
But in a swift reaction, APC-PCC urged law enforcement agencies to immediately invite leaders of the PDP for questioning.
The APC PCC, in a statement by Festus Keyamo, director of public affairs and chief spokesperson, Tinubu/Shettima PCC read: “We note with concern the incoherent and convoluted press statement issued by the ethically-challenged PDP, yet again raising alarm about certain plots to incite violence and derail the 2023 polls and having ‘credible information’ as to those unleashing violence in certain parts of the country.
“This statement, coming just barely 48 hours after one of its former officials was convicted by a court of law over illegal acts committed during an election over which the PDP government presided is just a pointer to the lowest level of moral debauchery to which the PDP has sunk.
“It operates without an iota of shame or respect for the Nigerian people. Instead of continuous apologies for those grievous acts of election rigging, money-laundering and other electoral malpractices, it continues to pontificate.
“Based on its latest statement about having ‘credible information’ about certain individuals plotting to derail the 2023 elections, including acts of arson already perpetrated on the facilities of INEC, we therefore call on the law-enforcement agencies to, as a matter of urgency, invite the PDP leaders for immediate questioning. The PDP must provide information regarding: The place and time such a meeting took place and those in attendance. The identities of those who committed these acts of arson on the facilities of INEC. The information must also include the identity of those who sponsored these individuals (if any),” it charged.
Reacting further, the APC PCC wrote; “The PDP should realise that an electioneering process is very serious business and not a time to issue baseless and infantile statements out of want of something to say to the Nigerian people. The Nigerian people have since grown weary of the antics of the PDP.
“We suspect that the latest alarm by the PDP is one of a long list of diversionary measures adopted by the party to deflect attention from its crumbling edifice. Just yesterday, the major leaders of the PDP in Katsina State led by a former Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shehu Shema, and 10 out of the 14-member working committee of the PDP boycotted the party’s rally in the State and today they issue this statement to deflect attention from that disaster.
“We also state that this gimmick is nothing but crying wolf when there is none. We have said in an earlier statement on this issue some weeks ago that this is the same unnecessary scare-mongering tactics and crass vituperations they employed and engaged in before the 2019 election which led to their crushing defeat.
“We also said before and we repeat it here that ASIWAJU Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a thoroughbred democrat and one of the major architects of the democracy PDP and Nigerians enjoy today, so he should be the VERY LAST of the Presidential candidates to be accused of undemocratic conduct or underhand dealings in the electoral process.
“The PDP should not joke or play politics with grave security matters. Having ‘credible information’ as to plots and individuals relating to the attack on INEC offices currently, further plots to disrupt elections is, indeed, a matter of national security.
“This is therefore a notice to our law enforcement agencies to immediately invite the PDP leaders for questioning. After all, it takes a thief to catch a thief,” they charged in the statement.