The All Progressives Congress(APC) Presidential CampaignCouncil says it has come to its knowledge from insiders within the PDP that the party is recruiting armed thugs and miscreants to attack ward and local government collation centres so that elections are declared inconclusive.
But the PDP is alleging a similar plot by APC, saying part of the plot “is to trigger mayhem and burn down INEC offices in order to claim that all evidence of … winning the votes have been destroyed.”
It advises APC to forget the plot because all its agents and supporters already have the results in all the polling centers and voting points across the country.
“As such, our party is holding strongly to our results as already delivered by the people at the polling units and such cannot be altered, ” PDP adds.
Said Festus Keyamo, the official spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council in a statement: “As we know, most of these collation centres are usually in schools or other places that are poorly protected.
“This is therefore a clarion call to all law enforcement agencies to mobilise extra armed security to protect all collation centres nationwide. We also appeal to Nigerians of goodwill and our supporters to provide standby electricity this night at these collation centres.
“We also call on all our party agents, supporters and patriotic Nigerians to stick with these election results from the various units up to the State Collation Centres. There is no cause for any political party at this stage to jubilate or be dejected. Nothing has been won and nothing has been lost. Official results have not been declared. Hence we call for eternal vigilance on the part of our agents and supporters.
“We repeat: nobody should jubilate now and abandon his/her duties. Let us keep our feet firmly on the ground and stick with our assigned role(s) until final results are declared by INEC”
In its statement, the PDP spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said President Buhari and the APC should stop whining over their rejection in the Presidential election and quietly accept the will of the people.
He adds: “The PDP alerts Nigerians that the APC and agents of the Buhari Presidency, being bewildered by defeat, are now plotting to discredit the votes which Nigerians freely delivered to the peoples Candidate, Atiku Abubakar at their polling units.
“Part of this plot is to trigger mayhem and burn down INEC offices in order to claim that all evidence of our winning the votes have been destroyed.
“The PDP reminds President Buhari and the APC that the polling unit is the foundation of the election and all our agents and supporters already have the results in all the polling centers and voting points across the country.
“As such, our party is holding strongly to our results as already delivered by the people at the polling units and such cannot be altered.
“The PDP therefore counsels President Buhari and his APC to respect the will of the people and accept the verdict of the election. It is not for President Buhari to direct his campaign spokesperson to tell Nigerians that no party should rejoice.”
For us in the PDP, we already have the figures and we are aware that Nigerians in their resolve and consensus have settled their votes in favour of the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as the next President of our country.
President Buhari should be prepared to take his defeat in good faith. After all, he will not be the first sitting President to lose in an election.