72 hours to presidential election, FG exposes PDP’s plan to orchestrate violence, cause panic
The Federal Government said it has uncovered plots hatched by Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to instigate violence with a view to causing panic and voter apathy in some parts of the country.
This is coming a barely 72 hours before the presidential and National Assembly elections slated for Saturday.
In a statement signed by Segun Adeyemi, Special Assistant to the Hon. Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and released in Abuja Tuesday, the Minister said the plot was hatched by the PDP in furtherance of their overall agenda to discredit the election before Nigerians and the international community as well as create constitutional crisis.
According to him, the plan gives has lent credence to the alarm raised earlier by the Federal Government on 21st January and 3rd February, 2019 that the PDP was planning to scuttle the election and, where that fails, discredit it.
The Minister said that in the days ahead, PDP bigwigs, including its presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, his running mate Peter Obi, PDP Governors and others, are planning a world press conference in order to level frivolous and unfounded allegations against the federal government and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Alhaji Mohammed said that part of the false allegations the PDP has planned to make is that the Presidency, in connivance with the APC want to force the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to announce presidential election results that are favourable to the government in power, on the basis of the false premise that the APC’s intelligence team is worried that the ruling party would lose the elections. He said the PDP bigwigs also plan to use their world press conference to further disparage the Buhari Administration as well as the ruling APC, with a view to painting an unfavourable image of both to Nigerians and the international community and to put the government on the defensive in the run-up to the polls. The Minister said the PDP’s last joker is a two-hour live press conference to be addressed by the PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbodiyan, on Feb. 14th, the last day of electioneering campaign, to chronicle all their concocted allegations and lies against the ruling government, cast aspersion on government and ruling party officials and throw innuendos here and there. According to Lai Mohammed, ”As electioneering campaigns wind down, the PDP has realized that it cannot possibly win a free, fair and credible poll, it has thus resorted to engaging in red herring, hauling insults and abuses at federal government and ruling party officials and making outlandish allegations with a view to creating a sense of panic and crisis.
”The truth is that President Muhammadu Buhari, a man respected globally for his integrity, has continuously assured that the elections will be free, fair, credible and peaceful. He has warmly welcomed observers, both local and foreign., because he has nothing to hide, and because he is sure that the achievements of his Administration will win him re-election. ”We are therefore calling on all Nigerians and the international community to disregard any attempt to scuttle or discredit the polls. We urge observers to keep an open mind. There is no cause for alarm, except in the warped imagination of the PDP, which has entered the panic mode and is already ruing the loss of another general election even before it has been held,” the Minister concluded.
Alhaji Mohammed said that part of the false allegations the PDP has planned to make is that the Presidency, in connivance with the APC want to force the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to announce presidential election results that are favourable to the government in power, on the basis of the false premise that the APC’s intelligence team is worried that the ruling party would lose the elections. He said the PDP bigwigs also plan to use their world press conference to further disparage the Buhari Administration as well as the ruling APC, with a view to painting an unfavourable image of both to Nigerians and the international community and to put the government on the defensive in the run-up to the polls. The Minister said the PDP’s last joker is a two-hour live press conference to be addressed by the PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbodiyan, on Feb. 14th, the last day of electioneering campaign, to chronicle all their concocted allegations and lies against the ruling government, cast aspersion on government and ruling party officials and throw innuendos here and there. According to Lai Mohammed, ”As electioneering campaigns wind down, the PDP has realized that it cannot possibly win a free, fair and credible poll, it has thus resorted to engaging in red herring, hauling insults and abuses at federal government and ruling party officials and making outlandish allegations with a view to creating a sense of panic and crisis.
”The truth is that President Muhammadu Buhari, a man respected globally for his integrity, has continuously assured that the elections will be free, fair, credible and peaceful. He has warmly welcomed observers, both local and foreign., because he has nothing to hide, and because he is sure that the achievements of his Administration will win him re-election. ”We are therefore calling on all Nigerians and the international community to disregard any attempt to scuttle or discredit the polls. We urge observers to keep an open mind. There is no cause for alarm, except in the warped imagination of the PDP, which has entered the panic mode and is already ruing the loss of another general election even before it has been held,” the Minister concluded.
