The Presidential Campaign Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) called on law-enforcement agencies to interrogate the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over its allegations of plots to incite violence and derail next year’s polls.

Noting that it takes a thief to catch thief, the APC-PCC said PDP may have ‘credible information’ on those planning to unleash violence in some parts of the country.

PDP publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba had alleged that APC was planning to frustrate and disrupt the 2023 polls.

He alleged that the APC leaders have activated plots to derail the electoral process through orchestrated violent attacks in various states of the country, aimed at triggering a nationwide security emergency, instill fear and make it appear an inconclusive election.

Ologunagba said: “Intelligence available to our party indicates that the attack on INEC facilities is to prevent newly registered voters from collecting their PVCs; destroy the PVC’s so that they will not be available for collection in INEC offices, and thirdly, destroy INEC equipment and cripple its capacity to conduct elections.

“In addition, the APC has introduced a very disturbing dimension of “purchasing” PVCs from unsuspecting Nigerians through monetary inducement masquerading as empowerment programmes.

The Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson, Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo (SAN), said in a statement that law-enforcement agencies should not allow the allegation by PDP go without being investigated.

The statement reads: “We note with concern the incoherent and convoluted press statement issued today by the ethically-challenged Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yet again raising alarm about certain plots to incite violence and derail the 2023 polls and having ‘credible information’ as to those unleashing violence in certain parts of the country.

“This press statement, coming just barely 48 hours after one of its former officials was convicted by a court of law over illegal acts committed during an election over which the PDP government presided is just a pointer to the lowest level of moral debauchery to which the PDP has sunk. It operates without an iota of shame or respect for the Nigerian people. Instead of continuous apologies for those grievous acts of election rigging, money laundering and other electoral malpractices, it continues to pontificate.

“Based on its latest press statement about having ‘credible information’ about certain individuals plotting to derail the 2023 elections, including acts of arson already perpetrated on the facilities of INEC, we, therefore, call on the law-enforcement agencies to, as a matter of URGENCY, invite the PDP leaders for immediate questioning. The PDP must provide information regarding:

The place and time such a meeting took place and those in attendance

The identities of those who committed these acts of arson on the facilities of INEC

The information must also include the identity of those who sponsored these individuals (if any).”

Keyamo said electioneering is very serious business and not a time to issue baseless and infantile statements, stressing that Nigerians have since grown weary of the antics of the PDP.

He added: “We suspect that the latest alarm by the PDP is one of a long list of diversionary measures adopted by the party to deflect attention from its crumbling edifice. Just yesterday, the major leaders of the PDP in Katsina State-led by a former Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shehu Shema, and 10 out of the 14-member working committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) boycotted the party’s rally in the state and today, they issued this statement to deflect attention from that disaster.

“We also state that this gimmick is nothing, but crying wolf when there is none. We have said in an earlier statement on this issue some weeks ago that this is the same unnecessary scare-mongering tactics and crass vituperations they employed and engaged in before the 2019 election, which led to their crushing defeat.

“We also said before and we repeat it here that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a thoroughbred democrat and one of the major architects of the democracy PDP and Nigerians enjoy today. So, he should be the very last of the presidential candidates to be accused of undemocratic conduct or underhand dealings in the electoral process.”

APC challenges PDP on plot to derail 2023 elections

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