PDP and APC clash over Tinubu’s alleged manipulation plan
The People’s Democratic Party on Wednesday called on security agencies to investigate and sanction All Progressive Congress presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu over an alleged plot to derail the 2023 general election.
The party also asked the president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret.), to call on Tinubu and his party members to ensure a peaceful, free, fair, transparent and credible electoral process.
PPD spokesman Debo Ologunagba made the call at a press conference in Abuja.
The APC candidate, in a closed-door meeting in London earlier this month, told his members that “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 costs; fight for it, grab it, rip it off and run with it.”
But Ologunagba said: “In response to this directive, APC leaders and members have now activated plots to derail the electoral process through orchestrated violent attacks in various states across the country with the aim of triggering a national security emergency, instilling fear and make it look inauspicious. hold 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 seen in the states of Ogun, Osun and Imo, where critical sections for the conduct of elections, particularly those related to with the collection of PVCs from permanent voter cards were attacked and destroyed”.
Continuing, the PDP spokesman said: “Our party has been informed of APC plans to orchestrate attacks in other states, particularly in Kogi and Delta; some southeastern states as well as parts of the north in order to subvert the electoral process in as many states as possible.
“Intelligence available to our party indicates that the attack on the INEC facilities is to prevent newly registered voters from collecting their PVC; destroy the PVCs so that they are not available for collection at INEC offices, and third, destroy INEC equipment and cripple its ability to conduct elections.
“Furthermore, APC has introduced a very concerning dimension of buying PVC from unsuspecting Nigerians through monetary incentives disguised as empowerment programs.
“In any case, our party is not surprised by the resort to violence by Asiwaju Tinubu and the APC; a clear acceptance of the electoral defeat that explains the decision of the APC presidential candidate to boycott the signing of the National Peace Agreement by the presidential candidates in the 2023 elections.
“Of course, the London meeting where Asiwaju Tinubu ordered his party members to unleash violence against Nigerians was a closed-door event that was inadvertently leaked to the public. The APC aimed to hit our nation with violence and mislead security agencies into directing their investigation on criminal elements and social unrest, instead of the real culprit, the APC.”
In response to the claim, Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council spokesman Festus Keyamo called on law enforcement to invite PDP leaders for questioning.
Keyamo stated that the way Ologunagba and the party fabricated the accusations raised in his conference connotes that they know more than they are trying to deceive Nigerians.
The statement read: “This press statement, which comes just 48 hours after one of your former officials was convicted by a court of law for illegal acts committed during an election led by the PDP government, is only an indicator of the level lowest level of moral debauchery into which the PPD has sunk.
“It operates without an ounce of shame or respect for the Nigerian people. Instead of continued apologies for these gross acts of voter fraud, money laundering, and other electoral malpractice, he continues to pontificate.
“Based on your latest statement about having ‘credible information’ about certain individuals conspiring to derail the 2023 elections, including the arsons already perpetrated at INEC facilities, we therefore call on law enforcement agencies the law so that, as a matter of urgency, invite the leaders of the PPD for immediate questioning”.
Keyamo said that the PDP must provide information about the place and time that said meeting was held and the attendees; identities of those who committed these acts of fire at the INEC facilities and those who sponsored them.