The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, said that it has uncovered a plot by the All Progressives Congress, APC, to set the stage to reject the results of the 2015 general elections.
Speaking at the party’s headquarters in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisah Metuh, alleged that the APC is using its ongoing party registration as a means to hype and give a false impression of massive public followership.
“We wish to alert Nigerians therefore, to the evidence at our disposal to the effect that APC is sadly and currently using every foul means at its disposal to build a particular membership figure running into tens of millions which it intends to use as a justification to fault, dispute, reject and subsequently take to violence when it loses in 2015.
“It is our strong belief that the APC wishes to announce a figure of 28-29 million registered voters in Nigeria. Subsequently, after the elections when maybe they do not have half of it or 14 or 12 million voters as usual, they will declare the election rigged, illegal.”
He further alleged that “the APC officials and members have been going round the wards and polling units, using INEC polling locations and materials and in most cases lying to people that the exercise is being embarked on by INEC or by the Federal Government.
“Unsuspecting Nigerians who think that it is census or INEC or any Federal Government registered exercise are currently being hoodwinked into registering as members of the APC.
“We reliably gathered also that in states controlled by the APC, especially in the South-West, pupils and students in schools are lured or persuaded to get the passport photographs of their parents and guardians and fill in forms of their names, which are thereafter secretly affixed to the APC membership forms without the knowledge of the innocent students or their unsuspecting parents.”
The party also wondered why the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has not taken any action against the APC on the matter.
APC Reacts
In the meantime, the APC is not taking the PDP’s allegations lying low.
The Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Lai Mohammed, said “if planning to win an election is a crime, then we will play guilty, but we plan to win and we shall win by the grace of God.”
Speaking with Channels Television, Mr Mohammed said “It was exactly a year ago, February 5, the first meeting of the merger took place, this is the same way they mocked us and said it would never work.
“Everybody was in the glare of all our discussions, through our debates, all our steps. It took almost 6 months for the merger to be approved. We set the building blocks of this party almost immediately and we’ve been fortunate that the implosion in the PDP again helped the party to become a phenomenon.
“Today what we are witnessing is a movement,” he said.
