The Presidential Campaign Organisation of PDP on Thursday alleged that APC was determined to cause security breaches ahead of the general elections and stop the use of soldiers because of its plans to unleash terror and intimidate voters.
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Director of Media and Publicity of the organisation, made the allegation at a news conference in Abuja.
“This has been confirmed by their vigorous campaign of calumny against the military and their consistent demand that soldiers must not be deployed for security surveillance at the polling booths,” he said.
Fani-Kayode described APC`s latest footage of a purported meeting involving some PDP leaders in the southwest which reflected attempts to rig the 2014 Ekiti governorship election as “petty and despicable.”
He said the organisation had listened to the audio clip and discovered that the discussion that took place in it did not mention any form of rigging in that election.
Fani-Kayode also said the purported clip did not contain evidence of any conspiracy to rig the election.
“Rather than attempting to orchestrate rigging, the audio clip clearly reveals Fayose expressing concerns that the military commander was not acting on information,” he said.
He said the governor and the others captured in that clip were apparently worried that safety of voters and INEC officials could be compromised if security measures were not strictly enforced.
He, therefore, said the APC failed to carry out critical content analysis of the discussions in the audio clip before rushing to town with it.
Fani-Kayode further said the PDP was confident that the APC’s allegation of rigging in favour of Fayose and others mentioned in the clip could not be sustained.
“Sadly, the same cannot be said about the electoral perfidy which the APC perpetrated in the Osun state governorship elections.
“During the course of those elections, some of their agents gathered in secret locations where they thumb-printed ballot papers in favour of their governorship candidate, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola,” he said.
According to him, the APC rigged out the PDP candidate, Sen. Iyiola Omisore, in the 2014 Osun governorship election.
He decried as inciting, statements of some APC leaders, especially Gen. Muhammad Buhari, its presidential candidate.
He said the fallout from Buhari’s visit to Maiduguri on February 16, gave cause for concern “as APC supporters burnt down the PDP campaign office there.”
Fani-Kayode also said the sordid killing of some members of the National Youth Service Corpers (NYSC) in the last elections must not be repeated.
“It is for this reason that the Federal Government must deploy soldiers to ensure peace, stability and security during and after the elections.
“The attempt by the APC to discredit the use of soldiers by promoting misleading audio footage of rigging during the Ekiti governorship election is childish and absurd.
“The federal government deployed soldiers in the Anambra, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun gubernatorial elections and all those elections were devoid of violence.
“Remarkably, the APC won in Edo and Osun; APGA won in Anambra, Labour Party won in Ondo while PDP won only in Ekiti State,” he said.
He added that the basis on which the APC was agitating for the exclusion of soldiers from the election by sponsoring court cases was patently “dubious and untenable.”
According to him, the reason the APC and its leaders do not want soldiers deployed is to ensure voters intimidation and to unleash terror once they lose the elections.
He further said the APC leadership knows that it would be far more difficult for them to do that when soldiers were on the streets.
He, however, stressed that the PDP was committed to peaceful elections and would completely reject the option of violence.
Fani-Kayode said the PDP would tenaciously uphold the Abuja Peace Accord it entered with 13 other political parties to ensure non-violence polls.
He, therefore, pleaded with well-meaning Nigerians to urge Buhari and the APC to show similar commitment.
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