• Opposition party says bullion van used to bribe Police bosses
• Fani-Kayode: Allegations insulting, fairy tales
A series of allegations of plots to manipulate the general elections which begin tomorrow was on Thursday levelled by the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In response, the PDP described the allegations as insulting and fairy tales, told by practised liars.
The APC, at a press conference addressed in Lagos State by its spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, alleged that the PDP plans to cause heavy upheavals during the election by throwing a series of bombs in states like Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Imo and Edo. It also accused the Directorate of State Security (DSS) of harassment and intimidation and claimed by Commissioners of Police were on Wednesday night bribed with huge sums using a bullion van. Mohammed said that his party was “very concerned by the increasingly- desperate plan by the ruling PDP to rig the elections at all costs, as well as the growing cases of harassment and intimidation of our members across the country by PDP officials and candidates, using the security agencies, which are supposed to be non-partisan and professional.” On alleged rigging plan, the APC said: “Out of the desperation to win the elections at all costs, the PDP has perfected a number of strategies to rig the elections, especially in the North and in the South-west.” It continued: “In one last desperate move, one Alhaji Sani Musa, the owner of ACT Technologies, the company that supplied the PVCs and the Card Readers, has been arrested and detained by DSS officials since Tuesday. Perhaps, the agents of the ruling party believe he may have the codes for the Card Readers, which is preposterous. Alhaji Musa has also been accused of colluding with the APC to rig the elections, which is totally false because we at the APC do not subscribe to rigging under any guise. “Another strategy is to deploy bandits in uniform to polling units to disperse voters by force, after voter accreditation must have been completed using the Card Reader. While that is going on, armed police and soldiers will then come in, ostensibly to chase away the bandits and evacuate INEC officials and voting materials. After evacuating them to ‘safety’, they will then coerce the electoral officials to allow them, security agents that is, to cast all the ballots in the particular unit.” On the alleged plan to engage in bombing spree in what it called “opposition strongholds,” the APC said: “Plans are afoot to carry out a bombing spree in the major towns and cities in APC-controlled states of Rivers, Lagos, Kano, Imo and Edo, with a view to scaring away voters from the polling units. Ekiti and Ondo have also been earmarked for Card Reader disruption. We are therefore using this medium to alert the general public and the international community to these evil machinations.: It cited a report in a newspaper (not the Daily Times), where former Governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa had allegedly affirmed plans by the PDP to rig. The opposition party accused Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, of instructing thugs to lay siege to the state, reporting that a House of Representatives member Eniolorunda Omosule, was arrested for no reason. On the allegation of bribery, Mohammed said: “we have also just been told that all Commissioners of Police in the Southwest were yesterday invited to a secret meeting in Ibadan, where they received a Presidential bribe delivered in bullion vans as incentives for them to scuttle the elections in the region by acts of intimidation, unlawful arrests, and turning a blind eye to all irregularities and illegality that the PDP may perpetrate during Saturday’s elections. The Minister of Police Affairs, Abduljelili Adesiyan, one of the star actors in Ekitigate, also attended the meeting. Fani-Kayode, dismissed all the claims. The PDPCO spokesman, in a press statement declared: “This is yet another preposterous story. It is like Shakespeare once said: it is a tale told by an idiot full of sounds and fury, signifying nothing. Fani-Kayode continued: “Lai Mohammed has degenerated to a point of no return and he and his party, the APC, have lost their self-respect and their dignity. The truth is that they have lost touch with reality. “To suggest that we are planning to rig the election on Saturday is not only absurd but it also down right insulting. “You do not rig when you are confident of winning. It is only the APC that indulges in rigging, in lying, in cheating and in fabricating fairy tales. “The gentleman by the name of Sani Musa is one of their greatest fans in Nigeria and he is a man that loves General Buhari and has the pathological hatred for President Jonathan. “How a man like that managed to win a contract to supply Card Readers for the 2015 election and how he managed to hold on to a copy of the Master Key to these Card Readers need to be explained. “It is our view that this man’s plan was to use that Master Key to the Card Readers to rig his mentor Buhari into power. We are not in the position to confirm whether or not he has been arrested but if he has, then we believe it is a very good move. “The suggestion by the APC that he has been arrested so that the security agencies could get the code of the Master Key from him and then use it to the advantage of the PDP on Saturday is childish and nonsensical. “Instead of coming up with these fantasies on daily basis, Buhari and the APC should tell us what their link is with Boko Haram; what their views are about same sex marriage; what their views are about homosexuality; what Buhari’s role was in the mass murder of many people of Eastern origin before the civil war; what Buhari role was in the Asaba massacre of 1968; what his role was in the introduction of the political sharia in the North; What is the connection with Al ‘Qaeda, ISIS and ISIL is really is; and whether he has a certificate or not and whether he ‘s properly educated or has certificate or not. “These are the issues of the day and these are the questions that need to be answered by the APC. If they refund to answer them before Saturday, by the grace of the living God, they should prepare for the greatest humiliation and defeat of their lives at the polls”, he said.
Source: Daily Times
