Military conniving with APC to rig Akwa Ibom guber poll, PDP alleges

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State has alleged that the military’s designation of 10 council areas in the state as flash points is to clearing the coast for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the Saturday, March 9, poll.

Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, Ini Ememobong, made the assertion in a statement yesterday.

“The recent show of force and subsequent declaration of 10 local government areas as flash points by the Nigerian army is a veiled plan to rig the election for the APC.

“We learnt that the plan was hatched after the Army failed to effectively intervene at the Ikot Ekpene Collation Centre to save Senator Godswill Akpabio from defeat.

“This announcement is, therefore, a smokescreen to enable the Army high command to deploy military personnel to assist in the hijack of election materials in favour of the APC.

“As a party, we are at a loss as to the basis for the declaration of those areas as flashpoints. It is common knowledge that no casualty was recorded in the last elections in the state, unlike other states where scores of people were either killed or injured.

“We will like to remind the military that their primary duty is to protect the territorial sovereignty of our country and not to take over civil policing, except in extreme circumstances, which do not include elections.

The party insisted that it rejected the proposed militarisation of the elections, citing the judgment in the case instituted by President Muhammadu Buhari, who was candidate of APC in 2015 on the role of military in elections.

It again urged the military high command to show neutrality by withdrawing the soldiers attached to the APC bigwigs in the state, alleging that APC’s gubernatorial candidate, Nsima Ekere, had posted the arrangement before its official announcement by the military authorities.

“The APC in Akwa Ibom has been boasting lately that what the police could not do, the Army will do.

“Our reply is in the scriptural proclamation, “who is he that says a thing and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it?