The Presidential Campaign Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress has called for the arrest of the leaders of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party for saying the PDP has “credible information” about some politicians plotting to disrupt the 2023 general election.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in response to the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu’s directive to snatch power in 2023, on Wednesday, said the leaders and members of the ruling party have activated plots to “derail the electoral process through orchestrated violent attacks” in various parts of the country.
Ologunagba said part of the plots was the current attacks on the facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in various parts of the country as witnessed in Ogun, Osun, and Imo states where sections critical to the conduct of elections, particularly those connected to the collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were targeted and destroyed.
Reacting to the allegations, the APC Presidential Campaign Council, in a statement issued on Wednesday by its spokesperson, Festus Keyamo, said security agencies should invite PDP leaders for immediate questioning.
Keyamo, who is the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, stated: “Based on its latest press statement about having ‘credible information’ about certain individuals plotting to derail the 2023 elections, including acts of arson already perpetrated on the facilities of INEC, we, therefore, call on the law-enforcement agencies to, as a matter of urgency, invite the PDP leaders for immediate questioning. The PDP must provide information regarding:
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“The place and time such a meeting took place and those in attendance;
“The identities of those who committed these acts of arson on the facilities of INEC;
“The information must also include the identity of those who sponsored these individuals (if any).”
He noted that the PDP should realise that an electioneering process is very serious business and not a time to issue “baseless and infantile statements out of want of something to say to the Nigerian people. The Nigerian people have since grown weary of the antics of the PDP.”
Keyamo added: “We suspect that the latest alarm by the PDP is one of a long list of diversionary measures adopted by the party to deflect attention from its crumbling edifice. Just yesterday, the major leaders of the PDP in Katsina State led by a former Katsina State Governor, Mr. Ibrahim Shehu Shema, and 10 out of the 14-member working committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) boycotted the party’s rally in the state and today they issue this statement to deflect attention from that disaster.
“We also state that this gimmick is nothing but crying wolf when there is none. We have said in an earlier statement on this issue some weeks ago that this is the same unnecessary scare-mongering tactics and crass vituperations they employed and engaged in before the 2019 election which led to their crushing defeat.
“We also said before and we repeat it here that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a thoroughbred democrat and one of the major architects of the democracy PDP and Nigerians enjoy today, so he should be the very last of the presidential candidates to be accused of undemocratic conduct or underhand dealings in the electoral process.
The PDP should not joke or play politics with grave security matters. Having ‘credible information’ as to plots and individuals relating to the attack on INEC offices currently, further plots to disrupt elections is, indeed, a matter of national security.
This is therefore a notice to our law-enforcement agencies to immediately invite the PDP leaders for questioning. After all, it takes a thief to catch a thief!” the minister said.
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