The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday insisted on the provision of adequate security, including deployment of soldiers, during the conduct of the rescheduled polls on March 28 and April 11.
Reiterating the position of his party, PDP national publicity secretary, Mr Olisa Metuh, said “We want adequate security measures to be put in place for the polls. The deployment of security is for the INEC to decide.
“The PDP is not a security agency or the electoral umpire. Whatever INEC and the security agencies decide on the security agencies to be used, we are going to abide with.”
Similarly, the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation (PDPPCO) said use of the military for the general elections is non-negotiable.
PDPPCO director of media and publicity, Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, stated that “The attempt by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to discredit the use of soldiers by promoting some misleading audio footage of the so-called rigging during the Ekiti governorship election, in which one Captain Sagir Koli was the dramatis personae, 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.
“The basis on which the APC is agitating for the exclusion of soldiers from the election, by sponsoring court cases, is patently dubious and untenable. The reason that the APC and its leaders do not want soldiers deployed is to be able to intimidate voters and unleash violence on the polity once they lose the elections.
“They know that it would be far more difficult for them to do that when soldiers are on the streets,” Fani-Kayode added. .
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