Tinubu plot to rig 2023 election – PDP
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Wednesday called on security agencies to probe and sanction the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, over an alleged plot to derail the 2023 general election.
The party also asked the President Muhammadu Buhari to call Tinubu and his party members to order to ensure a peaceful, free, fair, transparent and credible electoral process.
The PDP spokesperson, Debo Ologunagba, made the call at a press conference in Abuja.
The APC candidate, had in a closed-door meeting in London earlier this month, told his members that “political power is not going to be served in a restaurant. It is not served a la carte. It is what we are doing; It is being determined; you do it at all cost; fight for it, grab it, snatch it and run with it.”
But Ologunagba said, “In response to this directive, APC leaders and members have now activated plots to derail the electoral process through orchestrated violent attacks in various states of the country aimed to trigger a national security emergency, instil fear and make it appear not conducive to conduct elections in the country.
“Part of the plot is 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 Voters Cards PVCs were targeted and destroyed.”
Continuing, the PDP spokesperson said, “Our party has been made aware of plans by the APC to orchestrate attacks in other states particularly Kogi and Delta; some states of the South East as well as parts of the North with the view to subverting the electoral process in as many states as possible.
“Intelligence available to our party indicates that the attack on INEC facilities is to prevent newly-registered voters from collecting their PVCs; destroy the PVCs so that they will not be available for collection in INEC offices, and thirdly, destroy INEC equipment and cripple its capacity to conduct elections.
“In addition, the APC has introduced a very disturbing dimension of purchasing PVCs from unsuspecting Nigerians through monetary inducement masquerading as empowerment programmes.
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“In any case, our party is not surprised at the resort to violence by Asiwaju Tinubu and the APC; a clear acceptance of electoral defeat which accounts for the APC’s presidential candidate’s decision to boycott the signing of the National Peace Accord by presidential candidates in the 2023 elections.
“Of course, the London meeting where Asiwaju Tinubu directed his party members to unleash violence on Nigerians was a closed-door event which inadvertently leaked to the public. The APC aimed to hit our nation with violence and mislead security agencies to direct their investigation on criminal elements and social restiveness, instead of the real culprit, the APC.”