Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has raised the alarm over the series of unsubstantiated allegations and misleading comments by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the ruling party, saying they constitute a threat to the forthcoming 2019 general elections.
Oshiomhole stated this when he hosted members of the ECOWAS Election Monitoring Team led by former president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
The APC national chairman insisted that the party was working towards ensuring free and fair elections by ensuring that its members comport themselves as true democrats, by avoiding hate speech and sensitising the electorate to work against rigging.
He, however, expressed regret that the opposition PDP was not ready to abide by the rules, but was rather engaging in actions capable tarnishing the image of the nation and that of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Oshiomhole said: “As the national chairman of the APC, we are committed to a peaceful election, but unfortunately, the opposition’s language and utterances do not suggest that they want a free and fair election. I believe, because they knew they had lost the elections, seeing the kind of support our candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, has been enjoying so far as we have seen in our campaigns, the opposition is now in the habit of waking up and making unsubstantiated allegations just to deceive members of the international community.
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“Unfortunately, you see some foreign missions believing their lies and issuing statements in support of the PDP, and that is why some of us are worried that some persons are hiding under the guise of Election Observers to come and discredit our electoral process and also interfere in our elections and our judicial process.
“We observed that on the issue of the Chief Justice of Nigeria. This is a judicial officer who agreed that he erred when he did not declare some of his assets. And we have a situation whereby huge amount of foreign currencies were found in different accounts. And the PDP became the mouth piece of the CJN and they created a wrong impression before the international community, and we saw joint statements condemning the action of the president who was acting on the recommendation made by the Code of Conduct Bureau.
“Are you saying that if a crime is conducted on election day, and because it was an election day, the person concerned should not face the law? The president of America today is being investigated over allegation of alleged Russian interference in American election. So, I think all these unsubstantiated allegations are not good for the forthcoming general elections and that is why we believe that the PDP, knowing full well that they will be rejected by the people at the polls, are trying to create crisis where there is none.”
Leader of the group, Mrs Sirleaf, noted that the entire world was interested in ensuring a peaceful election in Nigeria, “because Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and anything that happens to Nigerian will not only affect the entire Africa, but the world.
“So, we are appealing to all the parties to preach peace and urge their supporters to pick their PVCs so that nobody will be disenfranchised.”
