The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Delta State chapter, has accused the All Progressives Congress, APC, of allegedly planning to rig next Saturday’s gubernatorial and state House of Assembly elections in Delta.
The party alleged that APC is planning to deploy ex-militants dressed in military uniforms to cause mayhem and disrupt the Saturday’s elections.
Director General of Delta State PDP Campaign Organization, Rt. Hon. (Chief) Funkekeme Solomon gave a graphic details of the alleged plans in a statement made available to BusinessDay.
According to the statement titled, “APC Planning To Use Ex-militants Dressed In Military Uniforms To Cause Mayhem, Disrupt March 9, Elections”, the PDP stated that the Federal Government was hell bent on taking over Delta in a do-or-die manner.
“We have been informed that these ex-militants, when fully dressed as military personnel and armed with weapons, will now be deployed and filtered into PDP strongholds, particularly in the Riverine areas where they are familiar with the terrain and in places like Delta North which is easy to navigate, with strict instructions to perform the following dirty actions,”
the statement reads.
According to the statement also, APC had planned to place key members of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s Cabinet and top PDP officials of the State under forced house arrest in order to dissolve their resolve and quarantine them to prevent free movement to go and cast their votes and weaken the stronghold of the People’s Democratic Party in the state.
The statement read in part: “Even as we raise this alarm, we have it on good authority that these ex-militants have already been assembled and have been moved into a covert and concealed location where they will be properly debriefed and provided with their uniforms and arms with which to impersonate and then put on standby until the time when they will be driven or ferried to their designated election areas and unleashed on innocent Deltans who are going to perform their civic responsibility.
“Our impeccable sources within the APC confirm with certainty that the master-minds behind this devious plan include the APC National Chairman, Ex-Comrade Adams Oshiomole, former Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who was recently trounced convincingly in the Delta South Senatorial election by the PDP and Chief Great Ogboru, serial loser to PDP, as well as top officials of APC in Abuja and other APC stakeholders in Delta State.
“Intelligence reports have it that the execution of the plan is scheduled to commence a few days to March 9, 2019 election.
“The aim is to suppress the will of the people and prevent them from voting for PDP, thereby providing the opportunity for the APC to manipulate and increase the figures from a visibly low turn out, in favour of their candidates.
“We have raised this alarm to alert Deltans and put the global community on notice that the All Progressives Congress, APC has declared war on ordinary civilians and Deltans because they want to “capture” Delta State and turn the people into slaves.
“The PDP, as a responsible, law abiding political party, whose main objective is to give Deltans quality governance and ensure a State where the people will live freely as stakeholders and not slaves, will do everything within its powers to ensure that our members and supporters always remain on the right side of the law.
“That is why we are drawing the attention of Mr. President, the hierarchy and high command of the Nigerian Army and the Armed Forces to be aware of what is happening in Delta State and to appeal to them to be at the lookout for impostors wearing military and mobile police uniforms, to call their men to order to desist from aiding and abetting politicians in their nefarious acts to break the law, breach the security and disrupt the electoral process.
“We are thus calling on the international community and the European Union, African Union and local observers to prevail on all the authorities involved with the March 9 elections, including the security agencies and INEC, to exhibit professional neutrality and maintain a level playing field during the elections, in order to avert an impending bloodbath on election day.
“Let us sound it loud and clear that the PDP will not allow itself to be intimidated or harassed by anybody as we march towards another resounding and definitive victory. It has become even more critical now for the people to say NO to APC and we urge our members and supporters to be extremely vigilant and ensure that every attempt to disrupt the elections are vehemently resisted, every attempt at infraction of the electoral process is thwarted and every act of sabotage and violence is recorded and captured. We MUST Deny these agents of darkness freedom of action in our various units, wards, local governments and State.
