Nigeria’s main opposition party, All Progressives Congress APC has said that it has discovered a grandiose plan by President Goodluck Jonathan’s party, the Peoples Democratic Party to massively rig the presidential elections in 2015.
On Sunday, the party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed revealed in a statement which alleged that PDP has initiated the rigging format in its desperation to “win the general elections at all cost”.
The statement also revealed the alleged plans of the PDP and the Presidency to adopt the use of the police as well as the military force to control the votes to their favour by “suppression of votes” in areas where Jonathan apparently has slim chances.
APC also alleged that PDP also intends disenfranchised voters in the zones with the deployment of the Forces.
But Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Ibrahim Jalo, in his reaction, told a reporter that the revelation was propaganda antics of the opposition party and that the public should disregard the allegations.
Mohammed who further explained the presidency’s game plan said the North-East and the North-West have been penciled down as areas where votes must be suppressed in 2015, through plans to deploy “special forces’’ to the areas in the run-up to the 2015 elections.
“The reason these two geo-political zones have been singled out for ‘vote suppression’ is because of what the PDP/Presidency called the ‘voting demographics’ in the zones in 2011.
“The North-West had 18,900,543 registered voters in 2011 while the North-East had 10,038,119. By contrast, the President’s ‘safe support base’ of South-South and South-East had 8,937,057 and 7,028,560 respectively, the total of which was less than that of the North-West alone!
“The dogged pursuit of this action of dealing with supposed recalcitrant members has led to suspensions, expulsions and alienation of some PDP members, and it was the immediate trigger of the collapse of the party of tattered umbrella.”
“The PDP/Presidency therefore believes that unless the votes in these two zones are suppressed, and those of the South-West (14,298,356) stifled one way or the other, the chances of the President winning re-election are very slim. Needless to say that these three zones (NE, NW and SW) are considered to be hostile to the President, hence they must be tamed,” he said.
In his reaction to this, Jalo pointed out that the people in the two zones are confirmed PDP members, and that there the party and the Presidency would have no cause to alter democratic votes that would emerge from the two zones.
He recalled that the President had risked his life and visited the people of North-East, especially Boko-Haram infested capital of Borno State, Maiduguri during the incessant attacks by the insurgents.
Mohammed, however, said that both the PDP and the Presidency plots to employ a strategy tagged “Third Force” to deceive electorates by projecting a performing Presidency image.
He said the PDP/Presidency’s grand plot also plans to deal with its rebellious members, including the governors and House of Representatives members.
He said while APC was not bothered by the desperation of the PDP/Presidency to engage in unfair and foul means to win elections.
Jalo further reacted saying that Nigerians should not bother on the propaganda antics of the APC.
“So, leave APC alone to be making noise. They are already lamenting even when election, which we consider as examination in politics, is still far away, the party is already looking for excuses to cover up its expected failure,” Jalo added
He also said that the 2015 elections will be determine by the devine hands of God and “only Him knows what will happen then”.
“However, let me say that both the President and the PDP are only interested in the provision of good amenities for the good people of Nigeria.
“APC is not interested in testing its popularity and even two years before the general election, it has started crying wolf where there is none. It is a losing party.
“The APC has lost confidence in itself and that is why it is crying now even when it has not been beaten. It should wait till 2015 when it will know that its popularity is on the pages of newspapers”, Jalo maintained.
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