The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Kwara Chapter of the PDP of crying wolf in its allegation that the APC plans to disrupt the Offa local government election rerun on Saturday, saying the PDP is indeed the purveyor of violence and the mastermind of rigging going into the polls.
In a statement issued in London on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said the allegation is also an admittance of failure on the part of the PDP, which has been in power in Kwara over the last 10 years.
”If a government that has been in power for this length of time, that has control over the police and the State Security Service (SSS) is now crying wolf over an isolated local government rerun, it can only mean one thing, that the government has lost control of events in the state and that it is no longer sure of the support of the people it claims to be governing.
”The truth is that the PDP has never won elections in Offa local government, and they are convinced that Saturday’s elections will not be different, hence the shameful allegation of violence and rigging against the APC,” it said.
APC said contrary to the allegations by the PDP, its (APC) supporters have borne the brunt of attacks by PDP thugs going into the polls, with some of them either killed or maimed.
”We have pictorial evidence of the attacks carried out against our members and supporters and the damage done to their vehicles as well as party vehicles.
”It is common knowledge that a cousin to one of the honourable members in the Kwara State House of Assembly (Hon. Hassan Oyeyemi Oyeleke) was murdered on August 11th, 2013. The case was reported at the Owode Police Station,Offa. There is also the attempt on the life of Prince Saheed Popoola on August 28th, 2013, witnessed by Navy and Army Officers. These are just some of the acts of unbridled violence by PDP thugs against our members and supporters. Yet the PDP has the nerve to accuse the same people they are attacking of planning to disrupt elections. What a skewed logic,” the party said.
It said Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC leader in the state who was said to have held a meeting in Oro on how to unleash violence on the people of the area, was neither in Oro when he was alleged to have held the phantom meeting and is presently out of the country, wondering whether the PDP has become so paranoid to the level of seeing Alhaji Lai’s apparition!
APC appealed to its members and supporters to continue to eschew violence even in the face of the worst form of provocation from the PDP, but urged them to turn out in large numbers to vote and ensure that they defend their votes on Saturday.
APC appealed to its members and supporters to continue to eschew violence even in the face of the worst form of provocation from the PDP, but urged them to turn out in large numbers to vote and ensure that they defend their votes on Saturday.
