The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Yobe state on Thursday alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has imported hoodlums and thugs from neighbouring Bauchi State with the intention of causing violence during the polls.
A statement signed by the Director General, State Campaign Council of the APC in the state, Alhaji Sidi Karasuwa, said “credible information available to us indicates that the PDP has imported thugs and hoodlums from Bauchi and other states with the intention to cause violence and disrupt the April 11 elections”.
He also alleged that “the PDP has planned on bringing in fake ballot papers and result sheets through Jigawa State in order to cause confusion, especially in Yobe Zone C.
“According to our information, some of the miscreants and thugs imported by the PDP have been lodged around Dagona Village of Bade Local Government Area, while others have been kept at an undisclosed location in Gashua Town. The object is to use those hoodlums kept in Dagona to disrupt the polls in Karasuwa Local Government Area and those kept in Gashua to cause chaos in Yusufari Local Government Area”.
Alhaji Karasuwa recalls that “the PDP had employed similar tactics in 2011 where hoodlums were brought in from Jigawa State but the timely intervention of the security agencies nipped the evil machination in the bud”.
The Yobe APC Campaign Council, according to him, has alerted the security agencies at the highest levels and called for additional measures to be taken to ensure that the polls are conducted peacefully and to protect the lives of innocent citizens before, during and after the elections.
But in a swift reaction, the PDP has described the allegation of the APC as “false, baseless, reckless and malicious”.
The Director General of Adamu Waziri Campaign Organization, Arc. Mohammed Shettima Saleh, expressed sadness on “why the PDP will disrupt an election it is poised to win”.
He said the “the APC will not be able to rig this election in the same way they did in 2011 because of the latest invention (card reader) by INEC in the current election.
“If anybody makes allegations of bringing in ballot papers in this election, then it means that person is not current with the tenets of the elections this time around” Shettima said.
Since the return of democracy in 1999, the APP which later transformed to ANPP and now APC has continue to dominate the political scene in the state, a situation the PDP is strategizing to change in the next election.
The APC won two senatorial and five House of Reps seats in the election held on MArch 28, while the PDP won one senatorial and one House of Reps seat in the same election.