The All Progressives Congress, APC, has alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan in the South West have hatched a plan to make the March 28th elections in the geo-political zone inconclusive, having realized that they cannot deliver the zone to the PDP as they have promised.
In a statement issued in Lagos, Sunday, by the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the plot was conceived at a meeting held in the Ondo State Government House on March 13th.
APC alleged that those planning to disrupt the elections were working in conjunction with the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC),” and they have trained and armed a number of youths with guns and other weapons, in addition to providing many of them with military and police uniforms, which we earlier said were being sewn in the capital of a state in the South West.”
The party alleged that the highly-disruptive and armed protest by the OPC in Lagos on March 16th was a dress rehearsal for the plan to be executed across the states in the South-west.
APc said the PDP has compiled and forwarded to the Police Anti-Cult Squad the names of APC youths in all the Wards in Ondo State so they can be arrested and locked up before, during and after the elections, to give the PDP and its cohorts the free rein to carry out their “evil” activities.
”As a matter of fact, funds have been provided to the Police Anti-Cult Squad to expand its detention facility, and work is going on at the facility as we write. The reason for these actions is that, despite the massive infusion of illicit funds to bribe individuals and groups in the South West, the PDP and its agents in the region have realized that their strategy has backfired and even given the people more impetus to vote against the ruling party,” it said.
APC therefore called on the security agencies, especially the police and the State Security Service, to shun partisanship in carrying out their assigned responsibilities to prevent any individual or group from disrupting the elections, irrespective of their political leanings.
”Let’s be clear: In the event that the security agencies fail to carry out their duties, we will hold them, as well as those behind the plot to disrupt the elections, totally responsible for any disruption in the polls. They will also be held responsible for any act of violence or intimidation against the opposition,” the party warned.
It appealed to its members and supporters across the South West to be calm but vigilant, and to document all actions aimed at harassing and intimidating them, as well as all acts of violence and all moves to disrupt the polls in the geopolitical zone.
”The forthcoming elections are being closely watched within and outside Nigeria. In other words, the eyes of the world are on our country. Therefore, no one who engages in violence, rigging or intimidation of voters, to scare them away from the polling booths,will go scot-free, irrespective of his status,” APC said.
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