APC, PDP disagree over alleged plot to scuttle polls

The All Progressives Con­gress (APC) has accused the Goodluck Jonathan administra­tion of sponsoring ethnic militias disrupt the forthcoming general elections using ethnic militia groups, an allegation that was de­scribed as baseless by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party

It alleged that the N9 billion reportedly paid to some ex-mili­tants and ethnic militias recently is aimed at mobilising them to scuttle the polls.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Public­ity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Moham­med, the party said the protests last week by members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) seeking the sack of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, was orchestrated by the Jonathan administration as part of its continuing efforts to sabo­tage the elections.

Mohammed said that the next group that has been mobilised to protest against Jega and the use of card reader is the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), which is also a beneficiary of the alleged N9 billion payout ostensibly for pipeline protection, but in reality to prepare the ethnic militias for their reprehensible role in scut­tling the elections.

The APC said more ethnic mi­litias would be enlisted by the administration to continue the protest against Jega and the card reader, to give the impression that Nigerians want Jega sacked and are also against the use of card reader.

The party expressed sadness that a President who inherited a united nation has done every­thing he can to divide the country along ethnic and religious lines, including patronizing ethnic mi­litias who serve no other purpose than to champion sectional inter­ests at the expense of national unity.

It wondered why President Jonathan would pay N9 billion to a handful of people at a time of great economic downturn and falling Naira, as well as in a situa­tion in which many states cannot even afford to pay their workers because of dwindling allocation from the Federation Account.

”A profligate government that has been bribing people with dollars and ferrying huge funds around practically to buy votes has outdone itself by paying out all of N9 billion to a few Nigeri­ans, with less than three weeks to the elections. Shortly after the payment, some self-serving groups started organizing pro­tests that, for all intents and pur­poses, are being orchestrated to scuttle the polls. This is a shame­ful show by the federal govern­ment,” APC said.

The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisa­tion (PDPPCO) dismissed the al­legation as false.

The Director of Media and Pub­licity of the PDPPCO, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who reacted in Abuja, also justified the employ­ment and compensation given to families of the victims of the Ni­gerian Immigration Service (NIS) employment tragedy, saying that the APC’s criticism of the gesture was unfortunate.

He said: “Once again, Lai Mo­hammed has indulged in lies on behalf of his lying party, the APC. It is not true that the PDP or the Federal Government is spon­soring ethnic militias. It is also not true that N9 billion has been

allocated for that purpose.

“It is rather the APC that has consistently supported and spon­sored the Boko Haram both in substance and in their utterances over the last few years. This re­course to telling a lie every day by the opposition party will not in any way assist them in achieving their objectives.

“We will remain focused on the issues. We will talk about their weaknesses and we will also talk about the achievements of Presi­dent Goodluck Jonathan on why it is that it is important that he is re-elected back into power on March 28. That is our focus.

“We have said it before and we will say it again: these people have become prisoners of their own delusions; they have become victims of their own hallucina­tions and fantasies. They have be­come paranoid such that they are sleeping and hiding under their beds. They are running from their own shadows and what we are witnessing is simply the judgment of God on them. They have lost their peace. They are running when nobody is chasing them and that is why they are say­ing these things.

“It is really is a pity that it has degenerated to this point. But the fact of the matter is that no serious-minded persons will take them seriously when they talk like this.”

On the APC claim that the PDP and the Federal Government were trying to garner cheap po­litical profit from the calamity that befell some young Nigerians with the employment and com­pensations to the families of the affected victims of the NIS em­ployment tragedy, Fani-Kayode said “It is not the PDP that feeds off the blood of other individuals; it is not the PDP that is a party of ritualists and cultists; it is not the PDP that encourages and sup­ports terrorist organisations that have slaughtered about 35,000 people over the last three years.

“It was the APC that did that when Lai Mohammed said that it was unconstitutional and un­just for the Federal Government to proscribe Boko Haram. We do not feed off calamity; they are the ones that do that and they consis­tently do that and they will con­tinue to do that and that is why we are saying they are not fit to take power in this country.

“Mr. President’s gesture con­cerning the victims of the calam­ity that took place last year when all those young people were killed was a noble gesture and was sim­ply an acknowledgment of the fact that these people died under very, very sad circumstances.

“It was simply an attempt to al­leviate the suffering and pain of the families of those that were killed and no right-thinking per­son will read any other meaning to that.

“It was a reflection of the com­passion and the inherent good­ness that reside in Mr. President’s heart and I think every patri­otic and right-thinking Nigerian should commend him for that and not talk about feeding off people’s calamity. We are not cultists in the PDP. It is the APC that is filled with cultists and ritualists.”