February 28, 2019.
Press Conference
Loading ...The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has noted the illegal occupation and
provocative besiegement of PDP states in the South South, namely
Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Akwa-Ibom and Cross River states by the military
ahead of the March 9, governorship and State Assembly elections.
This illegal operation is to further militarize the South South zone,
use soldiers to suppress voters and re-enact the massive rigging of
polls for the All Progressives Congress (APC), as was done in the widely
discredited February 23 Presidential election.
However, the PDP warns, in very unequivocal terms, that those who sow
the wind should also be ready to reap the whirlwind.
It is clear that after using military to unleash violence, alter results
and muscle out fabricated 25 percent ballot for President Muhammadu
Buhari across the South South states and other PDP strongholds, the APC
now wants to use the military to fight our governors, suppress our
members and forcefully take over our states.
Nigerians already know how APC leaders from the South South are going
around boasting that the military will use violence to give them
governorship election triumph, the same way it did during the
Presidential election, where innocent Nigerians were brutalized and
murdered.
Nigerians are witnesses to how 13 persons were murdered in Akuku-Toru
Local Government in Rivers state, in addition to those killed in Ahoada
East, Ahoada West and Emohua Local Government Areas during the
Presidential election.
Also, the public already knows how the Minister of Transport and the
Director General of the Buhari Campaign Organization, Rotimi Amaechi,
used soldiers to hold an INEC official hostage, changed the election
results and allocated fabricated figures for President Buhari.
In Akwa-Ibom state, Senator Godswill Akpabio has been using soldiers to
suppress and harass the people, in spite of assurances by INEC Chairman,
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, that the military will not be involved in
elections
In Bayelsa state, soldiers were freely used against the people. In the
process the photographer to the State governor was murdered. The Deputy
Commissioner of Police in the state was even kidnapped.
In Brass, East Senatorial district of the state, it was a war situation
as the military took over the electoral process and even declared
winners. Soldiers were deployed to the remotest villages where the
voters were suppressed and results altered in favour of President
Buhari.
Now that it is clear to all that the 2019 election is not between the
PDP and the APC, but a war between the state apparatus of power and the
PDP, the PDP cannot continue to fold its hands in the face of this
killings and suppression of voters by the APC.
On this note, the PDP, ahead of the March 9 elections, cautions the APC
and its compromised security agents to note that the people of the Niger
Delta are already hurting over the killings of their compatriots during
the February 23 election and any further provocation will be a clear
recipe for crisis.
The PDP is committed to peaceful election but cautions that no body has
a monopoly of show of strength. The people of the Niger Delta are peace
loving, but have never, in the history of our nation, allowed themselves
to be suppressed or vanquished by oppressive forces.
It is incontrovertible that the South South is a stronghold of the PDP
and the people are fully mobilized for the March 9 election. Our members
and supporter are in every polling unit, every collation center, all
exit and entry points in the area and will use all legitimate means
available in a democracy to defend themselves and their votes.
In this regard, any person who yields him or herself as a tool in the
hands of evil should therefore be ready to face the legitimate anger of
the people.
Moreover, the PDP cautions the APC to be mindful of the fact that the
Niger Delta region is the mainstay of our national economy and that any
assault on the zone is capable of spelling doom for our nation.
The PDP calls the attention of the world to the devious devices of the
APC against the South South as such constitutes a huge threat to our
corporate existence as a nation.
The PDP restates that the South South is our stronghold and calls on our
members and supporters in the zone and, of course, the entire nation to
boldly come out en-masse to vote on March 9 and use every legitimate
means to monitor and protect their votes to the end.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
And
Director, Media & Publicity
PDP Presidential Campaign Organization
