The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday alleged plots by President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to trigger widespread political crises, aimed at derailing the democratic process and plunging the nation into anarchy.
It faulted the President’s directive to the security agencies to deal ruthlessly with ballot box snatchers and others that may act in ways that could threaten the electoral process.
In a statement yesterday by its spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP viewed the President’s directive as “threat to the lives of Nigerians”.
The President had, during the APC caucus meeting held in Abuja yesterday, said anyone caught snatching ballot boxes should consider the offence the very last they would ever commit.
But the PDP said President Buhari was calling for jungle justice and attempting to divert public attention from details of APC’s caucus meeting where the President issued the warning.
The PDP statement reads: “We do hope that this call by President Buhari is not a camouflage for the fake soldiers mobilised by the APC to shoot at innocent Nigerians, snatch ballot boxes and execute their rigging plans on the Election Day. It is indeed a licence to kill, which should not come from any leader of any civilised nation.
“The underlining fact to the above is that President Buhari and APC leaders, upon getting to their voting constituencies last Saturday, realised that there was a nationwide rejection of Buhari’s re-election bid, and this has thrown them into a panic mode.
“President Buhari must, however, bear in mind that his resort to threats and scaremongering will not deter Nigerians from coming out en masse to vote him out of office on February 23.
“We are aware that President Buhari, who had earlier boasted that nobody can ‘unseat’ him, is bent on using every dictatorial act to truncate the process of a free, fair and credible election.”
The party also claimed that intelligence available to it showed that the Buhari Presidency had directed the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reshuffle the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs).
According to the PDP, the alleged deployment was for INEC to deploy “compromised” officials to manipulate the electoral process in the President’s favour “as they did with the police shortly before February 16”.
The PDP said “It’s also aware of the pressure allegedly being mounted by the Buhari Presidency on INEC to cancel elections in some states and make others inconclusive so as to achieve the President’s objectives of a staggered election not minding the crisis such will trigger across the federation”.
“We want Nigerians and the international community to hold President Buhari personally responsible for any electoral crisis, otherwise he will as usual, claim that he was not aware of the plots and transfer the blame to Adams Oshiomhole and Rotimi Amaechi.
“It is already known that President Buhari has been unrelenting in his attempts to subdue our democracy by trying to subjugate the legislature, emasculate the judiciary and seize control of the electoral umpire.
“Nevertheless, the PDP wants to assure President Buhari that our nation is bigger than him and that Nigerians will never allow him and the APC to rig this election.
“Nigerians have reached an irreversible democratic consensus to vote Buhari out and elect the people’s candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is ready to rescue our nation from the hardship, anguish, agony and bloodletting which the Buhari administration has plunged us,” the statement added.