The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the Peoples Democratic Party and the President Jonathan-led government, to scuttle the 2015 general elections.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Director, Media and Publicity of the campaign, Mallam Garba Shehu, in Abuja, on Thursday.
Shehu disclosed that the APC had it on good authority that the kernel of the plan was to use the subterfuge of the frivolous litigation by some people to get a court pronouncement to disqualify the APC candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
According to him, the PDP was seeking to build a case to the effect that Buhari lied under oath in saying that the military had his certificate, whereas the military had denied being in possession of the document.
Shehu revealed that the counter-arguments by the APC’s candidate’s counsel would not matter because a particular Federal High judge had been prepared to do the hatchet job.
The APC noted that it was the PDP’s calculation that this wicked pronouncement of disqualification of the APC candidate would precipitate spontaneous violent protests across the country.
Shehu said this scenario would then make President Goodluck Jonathan, the PDP candidate in the 2015 general election, to declare a six-month state of emergency across the land.
He alleged that the three-week long strike by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria was embarked upon on the prodding of the PDP-led Federal Government as a way to stymie any higher court from upturning the lower court pronouncement which ruled on President Jonathan’s eligibility to contest the February 14 election.
Similarly, the APC campaign organisation said the same trade union had been encouraged to open the court to allow for this court pronouncement in disqualifying Buhari from contesting the election.
The APC campaign organisation said, “We are aware of the intense desperation of the PDP-led Federal Government of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in desiring to retain political power at all costs despite his and his party’s overwhelming rejection by the Nigerian people, ahead of the 2015 general elections.
“We have brought this wicked plot of the PDP-led government to the attention of Nigerians, from whom any government derives its legitimacy. Nigeria cannot be thrown into chaos because of the selfish and callous desire of a tiny cabal to goad the Nigerian people into its destructive path.
“The governance of the Nigerian people by any person or group of persons must have the assent of the Nigerian people.”
The APC campaign organisation called on the international community to prevail on this obviously agitated Presidency not to plunge the Nigerian state into avoidable and intractable crisis.
But in response, the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation slammed the APC for allegedly whipping up sentiments and inciting violence ahead of the scheduled February 14 and 28 general elections.
The Director of Media and Publicity of the PDPPCO, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, said this in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.
He also alleged that the APC’s penchant for propaganda and threat of violence was mind-boggling.
Fani-Kayode said there was no iota of truth in the claims by the opposition that the PDP and the Presidency were planning to impose a state of emergency and postpone the elections.
He said, “We are not, at all, surprised about the false alarm raised by the APC that the PDP-controlled Federal Government is planning to declare a six-month state of emergency across the land. It is characteristic of the opposition to make spurious allegations in the build-up to the scheduled February general elections.
“The APC’s penchant for propaganda and threat of violence is mind-boggling. The narrative weaved together by the opposition party is disingenuous and it shows how desperate it has become in its impossible bid to dislodge the PDP-controlled Federal Government.
“It is clear that the APC now knows full well that a crushing defeat awaits it at the February 14 presidential election; otherwise why would it embark on this flight of illusion about a purported plot by the PDP to precipitate violence prelude to the declaration of a state of emergency?
“We state categorically that the PDP is ready for the February 14 presidential election and all subsequent elections; and is therefore not a party to any imagined ploy to postpone or cancel the election.” – Punch.
