MUZIK TUSH

Allegation is insulting, says Fani-Kayode

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

All Progressives Congress (APC), Wensday expressed concern over what it called the “increasingly-desperate plans by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the presidential election 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.”

At a press conference addressed by APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Lagos, the party said in its desperation to win tomorrow’s polls, the ruling PDP had perfected a number of strategies to rig the election, especially in the North and South-west regions.

But the Director of Media and Publicity of the PDP presidential campaign organisation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, has dismissed the allegation, saying that it was insulting since the ruling party would win the presidential election emphatically.
The APC  accused the PDP of masterminding the arrest and detention since Tuesday of one Alhaji Sani Musa, owner of ACT Technologies, which supplied the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and Card Readers by officials of the Directorate of State Security (DSS).

Mohammed said: “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.”

He added that another rigging strategy of the PDP was the deployment of bandits in uniform to polling units to disperse voters by force, after voter accreditation must have been completed, adding that while that is going on, armed police and soldiers would then come in, “ostensibly to chase away the bandits and evacuate INEC officials and voting materials.
Mohammed said: “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.

“This strategy, to be used mostly in the PDP controlled states in the North and the South-east, will be repeated in many polling units in many states, because for each state and polling units, there is a calculated percentage which the PDP must win!”
Another strategy, according to APC, was the use of carrot and stick against APC agents in APC controlled states, where PDP will attempt to buy APC agents over “with mouth-watering sums of money. If this fails, security agents and PDP thugs will simply disrupt the voting and destroy election materials.”

APC also alleged of what it called “worrisome development in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where in at least three locations around the FCT, Jere along airport road, Karu towards Nasarawa and Kubwa road, security agents have mounted road blocks and are stopping North-bound travellers supposedly for a routine search.”

It said: “But the real reason is to collect PVCs from passengers who have theirs on them. Those who refuse to surrender theirs are being molested. This runs against the pledge by the government to ensure free, fair, credible and violence-free elections.”

The party also said that while at least, three courts have ruled against the deployment of troops for election purposes, it has it on good authority that these rulings will be circumvented by the deployment of troops in DSS outfits in South-west states except Osun “with strict instructions to capture all states in the region.”

Mohammed therefore called for vigilance by its members and supporters in the region to expose those who will sabotage the polls.
APC also accused PDP of plans to carry out a bombing spree in 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.
It also alerted of harassment and intimidation of its members in Sokoto State where it said its members are under siege form PDP using security agencies.

He said the former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, even boasted openly in Daily Trust that “They said we are planning to rig the elections in the state; I don’t know why they are afraid of rigging when they know too well that they are products of the same mechanism. Let me tell them that we will use force, rigging and our ballot papers to send them away.”

Calling on all election monitors and observers to take note of Barafawa’s open threat, Mohammed said that police and PDP thugs, acting on instructions from Olusegun Mimiko, have also laid siege on the opposition in the state, where last Tuesday, Hon. Eniolorunda Omosule, a serving member of the House of Representatives, representing Owo/Ose federal constituency, was arrested and detained by the police for no reason other than to keep him away until after elections.

Meanwhile, Fani-Kayode in a statement yesterday, said the allegation was  another preposterous story by the opposition party.
“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”.
“Lai Mohammed has degenerated to a point of no return and he 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.”