APC alleges plot by PDP to implicate opposition leaders, rig polls

‘APC is a party of liars, fabricators’

ACCUSATION and counter-accusation over the forthcoming general elections continued Wednesday with the All Progressives Congress (APC) alleging plot by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to implicate some of its leaders and rig the March 28 presidential election.

  But in a swift reaction, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the string of false alarms and outright lies that characterized Wednesday’s press conference addressed by the All Progressives Congress (APC), where the allegations were made, has clearly justified its (APC) profiling as a party of ‘one week, one lie’.

  The APC alleged that some criminal actions are being secretly hatched by the PDP and the President Goodluck Jonathan administration to rig the elections and perpetuate themselves in power.

  Addressing the media in Lagos Wednesday, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, listed 10 desperate moves allegedly perfected towards manipulating the election.

 The plans, as listed by Mohammed include a plot to transfer a humongous amount of money into the bank account of the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Chairman (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, and then claim that the money came from Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the party and the APC in order to justify the ongoing plan to sack Jega so he won’t organize the elections.

 He noted that beyond Jega, there is also a plan to credit the bank accounts of some key national institutions with huge amounts of money purportedly from our party, the APC, ostensibly to compromise those institutions.

 “There is plan to use some political parties that are satellites of the PDP to push for postponement of the elections again. The plot is to get the parties to address a press conference to say the elections should not hold in the North-east until September 2015 because of the ongoing counter-insurgency battle there.

 “The intention is to make sure Jega’s tenure expires before the polls, so that they can appoint a malleable card-carrying member of the PDP as INEC chair to conduct the polls.

 “There is a plan to use the security agencies to intimidate key opposition leaders as well as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and telecommunications service providers to disrupt voice and data transmission, especially in the APC strongholds, on election day, the telephones of the APC’s leaders have been bugged and their movements are being daily monitored,” Mohammed said.

 According to the party,  “Top on the list of the security agencies to be used against the opposition is the DSS, which will be used to compel all Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja to hand over the names and telephone numbers of all INEC’s regular and adhoc staff who will conduct the elections, as part of the Jonathan administration’s rigging plans.

 “It is no longer news that a signal has been sent to all state commands of the DSS to get the list of all INEC returning officers and Adhoc Staff before March 10th.”

  The party added that there is also the ongoing illegal recruitment of over 500 new cadets into one of the country’s security outfits, 50 per cent of whom are from the home state of the outfit’s top brass, in violation of the provisions of the Constitution, especially as the recruitment does not reflect the federal character, while nocturnal meetings are being held between various heads of national security agencies and the leadership of the PDP to undermine the coming elections.

  The APC also alleged that the Presidency has retained the services of two Israelis and a Belgian who are currently holed up in the Aso Rock Villa, to hack and corrupt the INEC computers on election day, with the trio having already been paid 25 per cent of their contract fees upfront.

The party further alleged there is an ongoing effort to compromise the Card Reader, which the Jonathan-administration sees as inimical to its rigging plans.

 PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement Wednesday said “Nigerians are not surprised that the APC has officially adopted the use of fabrications having exhausted its fake campaign promises which were not able to upstage the verifiable achievements of the President Goodluck Jonathan-led PDP administration.

 “Nigerians are not surprised at the contents of the recent false alarms by the APC as they are undoubtedly a reflection of the character, inner thoughts and ideology of its leaders. These ignoble ideas are clearly incompatible with the ideology of the PDP and President Jonathan who has overtime demonstrated the qualities of a true democrat and not a reformed one,” the party said.