PDP, Presidency plan to rig 2015 polls – APC

The All Progressives Congress said on Sunday that it had uncovered a grand plan by the Peoples Democratic Party and the Presidency to rig the 2015 general elections, especially the presidential poll.

The opposition political party stated this on Sunday via a statement issued by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

The party alleged that the multi-faceted strategy that was being employed by the PDP and the Presidency, in their desperation to win the 2015 elections at all costs, included suppression of votes in areas where the President’s chances could be slim, using the police and the military.

But the PDP, in its reaction, decried the claim by the opposition, saying that APC was already afraid of electoral defeat in 2015.

It said the APC was aware of its limited popularity, adding that there was no way the party could win the election.

Mohammed, however, said that both the PDP and the Presidency were planning to use what they have tagged a “Third Force” to deceive Nigerians and project the image of a performing Presidency.

Other means he alleged the PDP and the Presidency were planning to rig, Mohammed said, included engaging in the destabilisation of the APC using moles and fifth columnists; instigate chaos in the South-West by using those he called the “Old Afenifere Guards” as well as infiltrate and weaken the socio-cultural and socio-political organisations in areas they deemed to be unfavourable to the President.

Mohammed said, the PDP/Presidency’s grand plot also did not exclude the ruling party itself, as he said both parties were pursuing a strategy of dealing ruthlessly with recalcitrant members, including governors and House of Representatives members.

He said, ‘’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.”

Elaborating on the alleged plot, Mohammed said the North-East and the North-West had been singled out as areas where votes must be suppressed in 2015, by creating an enabling environment for the deployment of ‘’special forces’’ in the run-up to the 2015 elections.

He said they (PDP and the Presidency) intend to launch police/military actions in the run-up to 2015 election, to ensure most of the registered voters in the zones were disenfranchised.

“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 PDP/Presidency therefore believe 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.

He said while APC was not bothered by the desperation of the PDP/Presidency to engage in unfair and foul means to win elections, he however added that it was astounded that a democratically-elected President would resort to actions that he said were far from democratic just to retain power at all costs.

He called on Nigerians to be vigilant as the PDP/Presidency had started to roll out their grand plot.

But the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Ibrahim Jalo, while reacting to the APC statement, told our correspondent on the telephone, that Nigerians should not bother on the propaganda antics of the APC.

He said the President and the ruling party were not interested in 2015, which, he said, was in the hands of God.

Jalo said, “2015 is in the 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.”

On the alleged plan to suppress votes from the North-East and North-West, Jalo said that the people of the two zones were PDP members, adding that there was no way the party and the Presidency would do anything undemocratic to votes coming from the two zones.

He said because of the love the President had for the people of North-East, the President risked his life and visited Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, during the tick Boko Haram crisis in the state.

“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.

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