APC alleges huge dollar import to frame its leaders

THE All Progressives Congress (APC) has claimed to uncover another in the series of plots being hatched against the leadership of the party. This time, it involves a huge amount of money (in US dollars), which it said was being ferried into Nigeria by some people, “who will then claim they were hired as cash couriers by APC leaders.”

In a statement yesterday, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed yesterday, said the funds were to be ferried into the country through the Seme or Idi-Iroko, or any other border posts, anytime from now.

He alleged that those who orchestrated the importation of the raw cash from a West African nation had also tipped off security agents at the border posts, “to watch out for those who are bringing in a colossal amount in US dollars.”

“Their plan is that once the couriers — who have been coached on their assignment — are arrested by Nigerian security agents, they will point accusing fingers at some top APC leaders, who supposedly commissioned them to bring in the money to be used for the forthcoming elections,” Mohammed said.

“The plotters of the evil plan will then order the arrest of the (party) leaders, with a view to damaging their credibility and destabilising them ahead of the elections.” The party said as many evil plots as were being hatched by “desperadoes who are bent on setting the country ablaze just to realise their naked ambition” would be exposed because Nigerians themselves, within and outside the government, had decided to be extra vigilant.

“Let’s be clear: Our leaders, who have been the targets of unprecedented mudslinging, as well as physical and psychological threats will not be intimidated into abandoning their epic struggle to save our country from a rapacious administration,” Mohammed said.

“Therefore, let those who have been unrelenting in threatening them and also painting them black, using every means imaginable, desist because their game is up. The people of Nigeria have repudiated their primitive tactics.”

The party noted that those who would, in their usual manner, rush to deny this plot, must remember that despite their denials in the past, all the alarms raised by the party had either come to pass or had been checkmated by their exposure.

“Let us remind them that we raised the alarm over their plan to postpone the elections and it came to pass. We raised the alarm over their opposition to the use of card readers and now all Nigerians can see,” Mohammed said. “We raised the alarm that the OPC will demonstrate against Jega in Lagos and it was accurate to the day. We will continue to expose the plotters of evil.”

IN a preceding statement, the APC, following the violent pro-Jonathan march in Lagos, which demanded the sack of the National Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, said it would send a petition against President Goodluck Jonathan to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague. A faction of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) carried out the protest.

The Director of Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO), Mallam Garba Shehu, noted that, “the machete-wielding and gun-bearing pro-Jonathan groups marched round the major streets of Lagos harassing and intimidating motorists.”

According to the statement, the protesters chanted “anti-Jega songs in a manner that gave them away as acting the carefully prepared script for the truncation of the general elections.” “There was such disruption to the tranquility of the city that warranted the citizens scampering for safety in all directions, a foretaste of the violence they plan to unleash on Election Day,”

Shehu said. Similarly, the APC has alleged that the president’s invitation to Jega for a meeting in Abuja on Tuesday that excluded other political parties was part of ongoing moves to compromise the electoral commission.

The party said it was wrong for the president, himself a candidate in the forthcoming elections, “to be summoning the electoral umpire at will, especially when such meetings are populated by his appointees.”

The statement issued by Mohammed read in part: “Without the representatives of other political parties attending such meetings, irrespective of whether or not it is aimed at briefing security chiefs on the preparations for the polls, the ruling PDP and its presidential candidate are seeking to gain undue advantage over others ahead of the elections.

“This is against the spirit of transparency and fairness and must stop forthwith. Had the representatives of other political parties, apart from the PDP, attended the meeting, the widespread speculations that Jega’s life and job were threatened if he fails to drop the use of card reader, as well as circulating reports that he will be removed before Saturday, would not have happened.”

The party also decried what it called “clandestine meetings between some key Presidency and INEC officials with a view to rigging the elections,” warning the Presidency to steer clear of the electoral officials if they desire a free, fair, credible and peaceful elections.

Meanwhile, the APC has said the Presidency and the PDP must not be allowed to profit from their alleged “sponsorship of ethnic militias, including MASSOB and OPC,” to create chaos and violence before, during and after the elections.