Progressives Congress 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.”
-punchng.com
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