APC to PDP: Lies against Buhari’s admin, APC, INEC, intimidation, others won’t stop defeat

Tom Okpe, Abuja

As the general election approaches, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has lashed out at the major opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that neither its lies against President Muhammadu Buhari and the party nor its intimidation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), by deploying blackmail tactics will stop the defeat of the PDP. In a statement issued by the APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu in Abuja on Thursday, the Party said the PDP’s line of attack cannot affect President Buhari’s emphatic victory in the February 16 election. The statement reads: “We have watched how panicky leaders of the PDP have become, having realised that they are heading for a crushing and humiliating defeat in the forthcoming general election. “In their confused and pitiable state, they have unconscionably hurled pedestrian allegations of partisanship and partiality against INEC and other state institutions. “The PDP leaders’ strategy is to regularly call out INEC and allege partiality towards the APC, thereby creating doubts in the minds of Nigerians and international community about the independence and credibility of the electoral body. “This is one of the odious antics of a desperate party that wants to hijack presidential power, not on the strength of having a credible alternative, but on the strength of selfish propaganda with which they mask their real motivation for seeking a return to power, plundering of the public treasury”. The ruling party calls on Nigerians to look between the PDP and the APC and judge who among them can be said to be favoured by the election umpire. “We call on Nigerians to judge between the APC and the PDP, who can be said to have been favoured by INEC when one considers how the electoral body had initially barred the APC from fielding candidates in Zamfara and Rivers States in the forthcoming elections. Less than two weeks to elections, our party is still in courts to seek justice from INEC to enable us field candidates. Notwithstanding our protests, calling INEC’s attention to the fact that the PDP didn’t conduct any primaries in Kano State, the electoral body has opted to look the other way even in the face of glaring evidence. “It is clear that the PDP is only interested in getting to power on a stolen mandate. It was not surprising that the PDP celebrated INEC’s initial decisions on Zamafara and Rivers because the PDP knows they stand no chance against the APC candidates in a free and fair election”. The APC also expressed shock on PDP’s allegation that the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) is being hampered by INEC to disenfranchise supposed PDP supporters. The APC further said; “How could anyone have known the political party affiliations of those who are yet to collect their PVCs such that the process of disenfranchising them was activated by INEC to favour the APC”, the statement queried. “The PDP and its leaders cannot hold the APC responsible for their electoral misfortunes. PDP administration’s antecedents of treasury looting, mismanagement of the economy and widespread insecurity have put a big wedge between them and the Nigerian people. “There is no doubt that the PDP will be roundly rejected at the forthcoming general election. On our part, we are confident that Nigerians will renew our mandate on the basis of our verifiable and multi-sector record of performance under the leadership of President Buhari”, it added.