The All Progressives Congress (APC) alleged yesterday that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was bent on decimating the opposition in the build up to the coming elections due to start next Saturday with the Presidential/National Assembly elections.
The APC said the ruling party was proceeding with its planned arrest of its National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on trumped-up charges anytime from now.
The plot, according to the APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, is for the PDP to gain an undue advantage ahead of the elections.
The APC also alleged plot by the federal government and the PDP to unleash a fake leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, on the opposition party.
Alhaji Mohammed told reporters at a press conference in Lagos that also to be arrested by the authorities is anyone who is suspected of being a financier of the APC “all in efforts to decapitate the main opposition party which is undoubtedly cruising to victory in the forthcoming elections.”
Also on the PDP cards, APC said, “is a plan to freeze the accounts of companies, individuals and organisations believed to be financing the party, with the ultimate objective of crippling the party so it won’t be able to sustain its activities, like paying its agents on Election Day and other logistics.”
Alhaji Mohammed said: “I am sure the question playing on your lips are: Why would anyone want to arrest APC leaders at this time? What have they done to warrant their arrest? Will there still be a level playing field for the elections if the main opposition party is decimated just days to the polls?
“Well, we can tell you that this planned arrest is orchestrated by the same people who have sponsored a series of protests to the EFCC, on the basis of the same documentary against Asiwaju which they also masterminded. It may sound like an intrigue, but that is exactly what it is.”
He recalled that the PDP had dismissed as a rumour the first alarm raised by the APC on March 9th about a clampdown on APC leaders only for Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State to say a day later that “all that needs to be done to break the APC is to ‘kidnap’ two of its leaders, apparently referring to Asiwaju and our presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.”
He added: “Definitely, the current move to arrest Asiwaju and anyone they suspect to be a financier of our party fits into the alarm we raised and the open threat by Gov. Lamido. How predictable can a government be?
“It is clear that the momentum has swung to the side of our party, with just a little over a week before the Presidential and National Assembly elections. It is clear that Nigerians have rejected the PDP and have embraced our party, the APC, as the agent of the change that they (Nigerians) so much desire.
“That explains the desperation being exhibited by the PDP-led Jonathan Administration to arrest Asiwaju, whom they see as the arrowhead of the opposition, believing that this will cripple our party and stop the momentum we have gained.
“Of course it is no longer news that the six-week postponement of the elections, which the Jonathan Administration orchestrated with the objective of slowing down our party’s momentum and giving the Jonathan Administration time to regain lost ground, has failed to achieve that objective, hence the resort to more dirty tactics of framing up our leaders just to put them away.”
The APC spokesman similarly denied that the party is sponsoring a pirate radio.
His party, he declared, has “nothing to do with that radio station.”
He said the radio could be “the handiwork of the same people who are accusing us of establishing it. Their main reason for setting up the station is simple: To use it as another excuse to clamp down on our leaders.
“They are the ones who set up the station. They are the ones who announced its establishment to the whole country and now they are the ones who are trying to leverage it to arrest our leaders.”
He accused the PDP-led Jonathan Administration of serially abusing federal institutions, including the police, the military and the regulatory agencies, to “harass and intimidate the opposition,” pointing out that this is “a reflection of the desperation of the Jonathan government to make sure that Nigeria is plunged into chaos by sabotaging the elections.”
He asked the international community to call President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP to order and prevent them from leading Nigeria “ on the road to Kigali and Laurent Gbagbo’s post-election Ivory Coast in the days ahead.”
“Election is not war, but a celebration of democracy. Nigeria must not be allowed to be plunged into crisis for whatever reason. This is because the consequences will be dire, not just for our country and her citizens but for the entire West African region and indeed all of Africa,” the party said.
Nigeria’s estimated population of 170 million is over 56 per cent of the ECOWAS’ population of 300 million. Therefore, a destabilized Nigeria is a destabilized West Africa.
And in a statement in Abuja, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation said the federal government and the PDP were in the process of unleashing a fake leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau on the opposition party.
The APCPCO, however, urged Nigerians not to be deceived by “the dubious, wicked and desperate plans of the drowning PDP and its candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan to win the Presidential election.”
Mallam Garba Shehu, Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign, said in the statement that any purported “capture” of Abubakar Shekau, would conflict with three previous claims by the federal government and its operatives that the insurgent leader had been killed.
He said: “President Jonathan and the PDP have concluded plans to release the fake Shekau as a final campaign gimmick to gain cheap votes and inadvertently subvert the will of Nigerians in the 28th of March 2015 Presidential election.
“The drowning PDP and its presidential candidate who are looking for straws to hold unto will then claim to have arrested the leader of Boko Haram, who would be paraded before the media and induced to mention the names of some notable members of the opposition APC including our presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari as the sponsors of their murderous insurgency.”
Shehu said it is shocking that the President and his party could resort to cheap and wicked blackmail against the opposition just to remain in office.
He, however, enthused that “no evil plan fashioned by the PDP and its ruinous ruling government against the electoral wishes of the Nigerian people will prosper, because the people of Nigeria have resolved on their own accord to vote for change in 2015.”
“This Party Deceiving People has wasted 16 precious years of the nation’s democratic life and therefore Nigerian people will not hesitate to give them a red card in next weekend’s election. So, manufacturing a Shekau whom they claimed to have killed three times previously will not help them in any way.”
The APC said the ruling party was proceeding with its planned arrest of its National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on trumped-up charges anytime from now.
The plot, according to the APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, is for the PDP to gain an undue advantage ahead of the elections.
The APC also alleged plot by the federal government and the PDP to unleash a fake leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, on the opposition party.
Alhaji Mohammed told reporters at a press conference in Lagos that also to be arrested by the authorities is anyone who is suspected of being a financier of the APC “all in efforts to decapitate the main opposition party which is undoubtedly cruising to victory in the forthcoming elections.”
Also on the PDP cards, APC said, “is a plan to freeze the accounts of companies, individuals and organisations believed to be financing the party, with the ultimate objective of crippling the party so it won’t be able to sustain its activities, like paying its agents on Election Day and other logistics.”
Alhaji Mohammed said: “I am sure the question playing on your lips are: Why would anyone want to arrest APC leaders at this time? What have they done to warrant their arrest? Will there still be a level playing field for the elections if the main opposition party is decimated just days to the polls?
“Well, we can tell you that this planned arrest is orchestrated by the same people who have sponsored a series of protests to the EFCC, on the basis of the same documentary against Asiwaju which they also masterminded. It may sound like an intrigue, but that is exactly what it is.”
He recalled that the PDP had dismissed as a rumour the first alarm raised by the APC on March 9th about a clampdown on APC leaders only for Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State to say a day later that “all that needs to be done to break the APC is to ‘kidnap’ two of its leaders, apparently referring to Asiwaju and our presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.”
He added: “Definitely, the current move to arrest Asiwaju and anyone they suspect to be a financier of our party fits into the alarm we raised and the open threat by Gov. Lamido. How predictable can a government be?
“It is clear that the momentum has swung to the side of our party, with just a little over a week before the Presidential and National Assembly elections. It is clear that Nigerians have rejected the PDP and have embraced our party, the APC, as the agent of the change that they (Nigerians) so much desire.
“That explains the desperation being exhibited by the PDP-led Jonathan Administration to arrest Asiwaju, whom they see as the arrowhead of the opposition, believing that this will cripple our party and stop the momentum we have gained.
“Of course it is no longer news that the six-week postponement of the elections, which the Jonathan Administration orchestrated with the objective of slowing down our party’s momentum and giving the Jonathan Administration time to regain lost ground, has failed to achieve that objective, hence the resort to more dirty tactics of framing up our leaders just to put them away.”
The APC spokesman similarly denied that the party is sponsoring a pirate radio.
He said the radio could be “the handiwork of the same people who are accusing us of establishing it. Their main reason for setting up the station is simple: To use it as another excuse to clamp down on our leaders.
“They are the ones who set up the station. They are the ones who announced its establishment to the whole country and now they are the ones who are trying to leverage it to arrest our leaders.”
He accused the PDP-led Jonathan Administration of serially abusing federal institutions, including the police, the military and the regulatory agencies, to “harass and intimidate the opposition,” pointing out that this is “a reflection of the desperation of the Jonathan government to make sure that Nigeria is plunged into chaos by sabotaging the elections.”
He asked the international community to call President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP to order and prevent them from leading Nigeria “ on the road to Kigali and Laurent Gbagbo’s post-election Ivory Coast in the days ahead.”
“Election is not war, but a celebration of democracy. Nigeria must not be allowed to be plunged into crisis for whatever reason. This is because the consequences will be dire, not just for our country and her citizens but for the entire West African region and indeed all of Africa,” the party said.
Nigeria’s estimated population of 170 million is over 56 per cent of the ECOWAS’ population of 300 million. Therefore, a destabilized Nigeria is a destabilized West Africa.
And in a statement in Abuja, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation said the federal government and the PDP were in the process of unleashing a fake leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau on the opposition party.
The APCPCO, however, urged Nigerians not to be deceived by “the dubious, wicked and desperate plans of the drowning PDP and its candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan to win the Presidential election.”
Mallam Garba Shehu, Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign, said in the statement that any purported “capture” of Abubakar Shekau, would conflict with three previous claims by the federal government and its operatives that the insurgent leader had been killed.
He said: “President Jonathan and the PDP have concluded plans to release the fake Shekau as a final campaign gimmick to gain cheap votes and inadvertently subvert the will of Nigerians in the 28th of March 2015 Presidential election.
“The drowning PDP and its presidential candidate who are looking for straws to hold unto will then claim to have arrested the leader of Boko Haram, who would be paraded before the media and induced to mention the names of some notable members of the opposition APC including our presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari as the sponsors of their murderous insurgency.”
Shehu said it is shocking that the President and his party could resort to cheap and wicked blackmail against the opposition just to remain in office.
He, however, enthused that “no evil plan fashioned by the PDP and its ruinous ruling government against the electoral wishes of the Nigerian people will prosper, because the people of Nigeria have resolved on their own accord to vote for change in 2015.”
“This Party Deceiving People has wasted 16 precious years of the nation’s democratic life and therefore Nigerian people will not hesitate to give them a red card in next weekend’s election. So, manufacturing a Shekau whom they claimed to have killed three times previously will not help them in any way.”
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