Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, Director of Media and Publicity, PDP Campaign, Femi Fani-Kayode, said “the opposition party’s latest gambit of latching on to some footage of a purported meeting involving some of our party leaders in the southwest zone (amongst them Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro of Lagos state, Honourable Minister Jelili Adesiyan of Osun state and Senator Iyiola Omisore of Osun state) which purportedly reflected attempts to rig the Ekiti governorship election, is both petty and despicable”
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) of planning to cause security breaches in the next few weeks.
According to PDP, this has been confirmed by the party’s vigorous campaign of “calumny” against the military and the consistent demand that soldiers must not be deployed for security surveillance at the polling booths in the forthcoming elections.
The PDP however, insisted that soldiers must be deployed for security surveillance on March 28 and April 11.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, Director of Media and Publicity, PDP Campaign, Femi Fani-Kayode, said “the opposition party’s latest gambit of latching on to some footage of a purported meeting involving some of our party leaders in the southwest zone (amongst them Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro of Lagos state, Honourable Minister Jelili Adesiyan of Osun state and Senator Iyiola Omisore of Osun state) which purportedly reflected attempts to rig the Ekiti governorship election, is both petty and despicable”.
He said chieftains of PDP have listened to the audio clip, saying that “the discussion that took place in it did not make any mention of any form of rigging in the Ekiti state governorship election and neither did it contain any evidence of any conspiracy to rig”.
The audio clip which was played for newsmen, he said rather than attempting to orchestrate rigging, “clearly reveals Governor Fayose expressing concerns that a Military commander was not acting on information about illegal movement of weapons into certain parts of the state”.
Fani-Kayode therefore, challenged the APC to do a critical content analysis of the discussions in the audio clip, expressing confidence that their claims of rigging against Governor Fayose and all the others that were mentioned cannot be sustained.
The PDP Campaign however, said the same cannot be said about the “electoral perfidy which the APC perpetrated in the Osun state governorship elections”.
He said during the course of those elections, some of their agents gathered in secret locations where they thumb-printed ballot papers in favour of their governorship candidate, Rauf Aregbesola.
“It is ironic that instead of purging itself of its own insatiable appetite for rigging and cheating, the APC, through its Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, chose to call a press conference in which he alleged that our leaders were ordering soldiers to rig in Ekiti state. This is a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black.
“As far as we are concerned, these are ominous and subtle threats to unleash violence on the Nigerian people and all those that he perceives are his enemies in the event of his losing the election.
“The PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation hereby declares unequivocally that the sordid killing of Youth Corpers or anyone else must not be repeated in the forthcoming general elections. It is for this reason that the Federal Government must deploy soldiers to ensure peace, stability and security during and after the elections.
“The attempt by the APC to discredit the use of soldiers by promoting some misleading audio footage of the so-called rigging during the Ekiti governorship election, in which one Captain Sagir Koli was the dramatis personae, is childish and absurd.
“The Federal Government deployed soldiers In the Anambra, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun gubernatorial elections and all those elections were devoid of violence. Remarkably, the APC won in Edo and Osun; APGA won in Anambra, Labour Party won in Ondo while PDP won only in Ekiti State.
“On a final note we would like to state clearly and categorically that we will keep faith with the spirit and letter of the Abuja Accord and we plead with well-meaning Nigerians to urge General Buhari and the APC to do the same,” Fani-Kayode stated.
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