PDP blames enemies of democracy for attacks on rallies, INEC facilities

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday asked President Muhammadu Buhari and security agencies to check against continuous attacks on its rallies. 

It also condemned attacks on facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying the development could threaten the peaceful conduct of the 2023 election. 

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, the Director of Strategic Communication in the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Momodu, said those who are not prepared for the elections might be responsible.

He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on security agencies to put an end to the attacks. Also yesterday, the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation alerted the nation and the international community of designs allegedly being promoted by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to incite violence and disrupt the smooth conduct of the 2023 presidential election.

According to the campaign organisation, “this apprehension is heightened by the viral video making the rounds in which Tinubu allegedly directed his party members to put aside decorum and deploy violence in the 2023 general election.”

Spokesperson of the Atiku-Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement, said: “Nigerians were horror-struck to watch the APC presidential candidate inciting his supporters by stating 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, snatch it and run (away) with it.”

Ologbondiyan explained that “Tinubu’s directive that his supporters should “fight for”, “grab” and “snatch” political power with a confession that “it is what we are doing” validates apprehensions by Nigerians that the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign is behind the attacks on the campaign rallies of the PDP as well as the series of arsons on the facilities of the INEC.”

According to Ologbondiyan, “it is now clear that the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign is in bitter condemnation of INEC’s decision to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and Results Viewing Portal and they are hiding under that to incite their thugs against INEC, having realised that the direct transmission of election results will scuttle APC’s rigging plans.”

The Atiku-Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation noted that “inciting comment by Tinubu substantiates the suspicion by Nigerians that the alarm raised by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor, concerning pressures on the military to compromise the electoral process is pointing towards the direction of the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign.”