The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APCPCO) has condemned as bestial and undemocratic the alleged plot by the President Goodluck Jonathan-led ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to clip the electoral success wings of the opposition APC, through a proposed grounding of aircrafts and freezing of bank accounts belonging to stalwarts of the party.
The plot to destabilise the APC and cripple its flag-bearer, General Muhammadu Buhari, according to a statement by the APCPCO may be linked to the unsettling global attention on the party after the opposition candidate’s triumphant performance at the United Kingdom’s think tank, Chatham House on Thursday, 26th February, despite futile public protestation by a PDP rented crowd in London.
“In as much as we understand politics to be a game of wits and guts, yet the desperate way and manner the PDP and its henchmen are going is anathema, criminal and inimical to our nascent democracy and civilised human behaviour. Hence, any attempt by anyone to cripple the APC and its presidential candidate will be foiled by the citizens who have taken over the movement of change as symbolised by General Muhammadu Buhari. The hint we gather from sources is that the government, through its agents, is plotting to ground aircrafts and freeze bank accounts of APC stakeholders. But history has shown that the forces of evil can never succeed against the zeal of men and women of virtue and good deeds,” said Malam Garba Shehu, Director of Media and Publicity of APCPCO.
“Information at our disposal has uncovered the ruinous plan by the Jonathan administration to use the Aviation Ministry and secret arm of the Security Service to hound and clampdown members of the APC, by prospecting obnoxious means that would ground private jets belonging to senior members of our party, in order to halt and slow down Buhari’s world-acclaimed phenomenal popularity as President-in-waiting.
“There is also a plot to block or freeze the bank accounts of APC chieftains like Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor Rotimi Amaechi (Director General of APC Presidential Campaign Organisation), and other prominent leaders believed to be funding the General’s campaign; and availing him their aircrafts for electioneering purposes,” Shehu disclosed.
Shehu recalls that private jets conveying APC Governors, Amaechi of Rivers State and Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, were either prevented from taking-off or landing during crucial political occasions, particularly during the infamous Ekiti State gubernatorial elections that saw PDP’s Ayodele Fayose ‘defeating’ Dr Kayode Fayemi, in a most controversial “military-assisted” contest now known as “Ekiti-gate Tape.”
In a related development, APCPCO also said PDP had become so delusional that it now fabricates outright lies to blackmail and denigrate APC, Buhari and Vice Presidential candidate, Prof Yemi Osinbajo to divert attention from the mess it has created in every facet of the lives of Nigerians
Shehu reminded how the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), an appointee of the President, used his office to do a counter-affidavit and supporting written address in giving tacit approval to a nocturnal group’s desire at truncating the use of card readers in assuring on the transparency of the general election.
“A patriotic Nigerian soldier, Captain Sagir Koli, had done a painstaking and elaborate audio recording of the meeting in which the Presidential order for the rigging of the 22nd June, 2014 Ekiti governorship election in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was handed down. Among the people present at the meeting were: Mr. Ayo Fayose, the greatest beneficiary of the nefarious rigging plot, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro as the Minister of state for Defence, Brigadier-General Aliyu Momoh, the commander of 32nd Artillery Brigade, Navy Capt. (rtd) Caleb Olubolade, Alhaji Jelili Adesiyan, Minister for Police Affairs, Otunba Iyiola Omisore, PDP governorship candidate for Osun State.
“Meanwhile, Ayo Fayose, Jelili Adesiyan and Musiliu Obanikoro had variously made statements in attesting to the veracity of the nocturnal meeting; President Goodluck Jonathan, pressured to probe the incident, peremptorily foreclosed such investigative check when he said “If someone comes up with a spurious allegation that has no substance and the person disappears, of course, what do you want me to do?” Obviously, this President is not mindful of his oath of allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria! The evidence of audio recording with the available technology can be used to ascertain the truth about the plot, regardless the presence or absence of the source of it. Apparently, the President, caught in the act of ordering an electoral heist, is unwilling to initiate a probe that will indict and incriminate him.
“The Director of Communication for the PDP Presidential Campaign, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, said with uncanny impudence that the APC Vice Presidential candidate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, was made to agree to an oath to resign six months after and allow Senator Bola Tinubu, in the event that APC wins the Presidential election. Quite evidently, this piece of bunkum was meant to vitiate the integrity of our respected Vice Presidential candidate by the band of dishonourable politicians in the PDP. We state, without any iota of equivocation, that this is untrue and unfounded.
“We have shown these examples of the PDP-led Presidency’s conduct in desperately laying hold at straw despite the rejection of the Nigerian people, ahead of the general elections. The resort to deliberate falsehood and unfounded allegations represent the PDP-led Presidency’s unmistakable beclouding of the campaign issues of the forthcoming election.
“The incompetence and utter cluelessness of the Presidency in tackling the downward spirals of the Nation’s economy, the nauseous corruption assailing the Nigerian polity and the discomforting insecurity of lives and property are issues that the Nigerian citizens consider germane to their existence. These should be the pertinent issues ahead of the elections. Unfortunately, the PDP-led Presidency seeks to change the narrative by resorting to tales by moonlight.
“On our part, we shall continue to insist on these enviable standards of good governance in the Nigerian political space.”
