FG, APC planning to use military to rig rerun elections – PDP

The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has said
that the Federal Government and the All Progressives Congress are
planning to use soldiers to rig the rerun governorship elections
slated for March 23 in six states by the Independent National
Electoral Commission.

The party said it based its conclusion on what it experienced
during the rerun of the governorship election in Osun State, where
it alleged that security men barred journalists, observers and
voters who wanted to vote for the PDP from gaining access to
polling units.

The PDP also accused INEC of working in tandem with the ruling
party to deny it victory in states where it claimed the voters
trooped out in large numbers to vote for its candidates.

It would be recalled that the commission on Tuesday named states
where such rerun elections would hold as Kano, Adamawa, Bauchi,
Plateau, Benue and Sokoto States.

But the National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, who
spoke with our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday, asked Nigerians
and the international community to pay attention to what he
described as the “antics of the APC and INEC to deny Nigerians the
opportunity to freely elect their leaders.”

He said it was strange that the Nigeria Army allowed itself to
be used by politicians who, he claimed, were out to dent the image
of the security agencies.

He described what happened in Rivers State during last
Saturday’s governorship election as pathetic and called on
Nigerians to demand the withdrawal of the military from the
state.

Secondus said it was because the APC and the Federal Government
allegedly relied on guns instead of the people that they had been
boasting.

He said, “Nigerians will recall what happened during the rerun
of the Osun State governorship election where masked security men
from the Department of State Services and policemen took over the
polling units and centres.

“Nigerians saw the evil that happened there as the security men
barred supporters of the PDP from gaining access to the polling
centres. However, both Nigerians and the international community
saw how security agents served as aides to members of the APC as
they walked freely to the polling centres.

“That is what they are now planning to do on March 23. Some
governors of the APC met with President Muhammadu Buhari this week.
We know the issues discussed at the secret meeting.

“This was why none of those at the meeting was ready to brief
journalists afterwards. They are planning to harrass voters, using
the military, especially the army and the DSS, in the affected
polling units and thereby take the states by force.

“We will not allow this to happen. We will not surrender the
mandates that were freely given to us by Nigerians to the enemies
of democracy in the country.

“INEC, the APC and the Federal Government knew that we won in
almost all the six states, but because it would be glaring that we
were robbed of victory, they are now calling for rerun
elections.”

The PDP chairman said it was sad that members of the ruling
party were not thinking of the economic and social implications of
not allowing free and fair elections in the country.

“Actions of the government and even the damage the military has
done to the image of this country in the last few days will take
years to rebuild. It is a colossal loss to the nation,” he
added.

Efforts made by one of our correspondents to get the reaction of
the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallan Lanre
Issa-Onilu, were not successful as he neither picked his calls nor
replied to a text message sent to him.