The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of engaging in brazen lies by alleging interference by the security agencies with cases before election petition tribunals, calling the allegation a futile attempt by the PDP to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians.
In a statement in Lagos on Thursday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said not only did the PDP
lie shamelessly in making the allegation, the party is also trying to
muddle the waters on the true situation concerning the case before the
Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal – which precipitated the PDP’s
frivolous accusation in the first instance.
It said that in truth, the invitation of some officials from the
Rivers State office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was prompted by a petition to the IG and the DG, DSS, by the APC that the officials were colluding with the PDP to deny the APC
access to key documents used for the last Governorship and House of
Assembly elections in the state.
Also contained in the petition, APC said, is the fact that some
directors at the INEC head office in Abuja have been working
strenuously to deny the APC access to some documents used for the said
elections but domiciled at the Commission’s head office, even when the
INEC Chairman has promptly attended to the issue and directed the said
officials to furnish the needed documents.
The party said that as a matter of fact, the IG had directed, upon the
receipt of the APC petition, that the matter be investigated and that
the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Rivers State should be
invited.
Those who were named in the APC petition to the security agencies
include the Rivers REC, Mrs Gesila Khan; the Administrative Secretary,
Mr. Obijuru C. Royson; Head of Operations Department Bocco Ekong and
Legal Officer Fumi Nancy Odihir Gaffar who, along with other INEC
officials in Rivers, are colluding with the PDP to frustrate all
attempts by the APC to access the vital documents.
”Therefore, the PDP’s wolf crying over a conspiracy it orchestrated
with the Rivers INEC to deny the APC access to documents used for the
said elections amounts to barefaced lies and a clear attempt at
distorting facts.
”These persistent refusal to release the documents is happening
despite a valid order from the Tribunal and in a clear violation of
Section 77 (1) and (2) and other provisions of the Electoral Act.
”In addition, there is also a deliberate effort by the conspirators
(Rivers INEC and the PDP) to destroy the documents so as not to allow
the APC to have access to them, and then report their loss to the
police. One of such cases was filed on June 29th at the Akinima Police
Station in the Ahoada West Council Area,” APC said
The party said it is now clearer than ever that the PDP, knowing fully
well that it has something to hide in the Rivers election, is doing
everything possible to sabotage the search for the truth, while at the
same time engaging in impudent finger pointing as a strategy to
deceive the unsuspecting public.
”Having willfully used the security agencies as a tool to rig
elections, harass the opposition and tamper with evidence in all its
16 years of shame in office, the PDP now believes the APC will do the
same. That is wrong, because the APC is a party founded on the rule of
law. As far as we in the APC are concerned, let the necessary lawful
procedures be followed and let the truth prevail in the cases before
the various election petition tribunals across the country,” it said.
