APC Alleges Plot to Disqualify Buhari

Roughly 96 hours to the pres­idential election, the din of accu­sations and counter-accusations between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progres­sives Party (APC) is getting more deafening.

The APC has accused the PDP of plotting to cause chaos in the country by disqualifying the APC presidential candidate, Muham­madu Buhari, on the eve of the presidential elections. It is in response to rumours of a court ruling to be delivered today an­nulling Buhari’s candidacy on the grounds of lacking requisite aca­demic qualifications.

In a similar fashion, the PDP accused the opposition of oper­ating like a cult, plotting to use an illegal radio, Chanji, to cause mayhem in the country. The rul­ing party also told the APC to stop insulting Yoruba traditional rul­ers.

On Tuesday, The Peoples Dem­ocratic Party Presidential Cam­paign Organisation (PDPPCO) reeled out damning accusations against the APC ranging from in­sulting Yoruba Obas to employing demonic powers to win the com­ing elections.

The APC warned against any last-minute disqualification of General Buhari or another post­ponement of the elections.

About 10 suits seeking the disqualification of Buhari on grounds of lack of requisite edu­cational qualification are current­ly being heard at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

The suits were instituted by dif­ferent persons at different courts, but were later consolidated.

Progress on the suits have been stalled due to arguments over whether Buhari and the APC can be served through the media.

The court, headed by Justice Ademola Adeniyi, will today de­cide on the issue of service. The case was moved from Tuesday.

The APC said in a statement by its spokesperson, Lai Moham­med, that it suspected foul play.

He said: ”If it is true, as it is being widely speculated across the country, that the Jonathan Administration has procured a judgement to disqualify the APC Presidential Candidate on Wednesday, when the

Federal High Court in Abuja is expected to rule on the issue, then it portends a great danger for our country.”

It said, in addition to other rea­sons, the six-week postponement of the elections may have been used by those who never wanted the polls to hold in the first in­stance to shop for such a satanic judgement.

”Anyone who will disqualify a presidential candidate on the eve of an election can only have one and only one purpose for that: to trigger chaos and pandemonium across the country. Perhaps, this is the reason for the deployment of troops across the country to crack down on possible protests and create confusion.

“Then, those who orchestrated the disqualification will simply use what they expect to be an­gry reactions nationwide as an excuse to postpone the elections again, thus triggering a constitu­tional crisis, the end of which no one can predict.

”This is why we are hoping that good reason will prevail and nothing will be done, deliberately, to plunge Nigeria into crisis by the same people who have always been quick to say their political ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian,” APC said.

The Director of Media and Publicity of the PDPPCO, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who issued a press statement in Abuja, warned the APC to stop insulting Yoruba traditional rulers. He also berated the opposition party for allegedly resorting to “guerilla journalism” through the establishment and operation of illegal Radio Chanji at a secret location outside the country.

The statement by the PDPPCO reads in part, “There are three areas which we wish to touch on today (yesterday) and which give us cause for concern.

“The first is our concern about the intentions of the All Progres­sives Congress (APC) to use the radio station known as Radio Change (Radio Chanji in Hausa) to create crises in this country af­ter the election results have been announced.

“The opposition has insisted on continuing in what we call guerrilla journalism by making all kinds of pronouncements and all kinds of false statements from that radio station.

“The radio station is outside the shores of Nigeria and we be­lieve that we have identified the country from where it has been broadcasting.“

Though it did not name the country, the PDPPCO alleged that the radio would be used to incite the Nigerian public to violence af­ter APC loses the election.

The statement added:”They also intend to use the station to announce false results all over the country, particularly targeting northern Nigeria…

“The second issue … are the consistent verbal attacks by the APC and their leaders on our traditional rulers and institu­tions and especially the deep and damaging insults that have been meted out to the traditional rulers and revered elders in the south-western part of our country.

“Our message to the APC lead­ership is to leave our Obas alone and our warning to them is that if they refuse to do so they will re­gret it deeply at the polls.

“It all started when they re­ferred to our traditional rulers in the south-west as ‘worshipers of mammon’, meaning that they are cheap and vulgar and that they worship money. The second one was when Asiwaju Bola Ti­nubu, the de facto leader of APC, referred to all the Yoruba Obas as not being decent people with the exception of only three. That means that as far as he is con­cerned, 97 percent of our Obas in Yorubaland are useless and irre­sponsible people.