Borno bye-election: PDP faults APC’s bandwagon argument

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as ‘hollow, fallacious and completely out of point,’ the  argument by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to use the outcome of the 2015 general elections as a premise to claim victory in the manipulated last Saturday’s Borno Central senatorial bye election.

It would be recalled that reacting to claims by the PDP that it won the election which it claimed  was marred by rigging by the APC and other electoral agents, the APC in a statement issued in Lagos, Tuesday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, replied that ‘it amounts to dishonesty on the part of the PDP to expect victory in Borno State, where it had a dismal outing during the last general elections in March and April, and where the opposition party has remained sharply divided.’

”We have therefore decided to present the facts to Nigerians so they can be the judge. In the 2015 presidential elections, our party, the APC, got 473,543 votes compared to a paltry 25,640 received by the PDP. In the 2015 Governorship election in Borno, APC scored 649,913 votes to the measly 34,771 by the PDP.

”The National Assembly election was not different. The APC won all three seats in the Senate and 10 in the House of Representatives, leaving nothing for the pitiful PDP. The APC also won 28 seats in the State House of Assembly in which the pathetic PDP got zero seat.

”Put these figures side by side with the fact that the people of Borno have long distanced themselves from the PDP, which presided over the worst moment in the history of the state that saw thousands of deaths, displacements as well as destruction of schools, farms, markets, and so on, by Boko Haram, and one can clearly realize that the PDP was simply lying to itself and the nation by suggesting that it had any chance in last Saturday’s election,” Lai Mohammed said.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh in a statement, Thursday said the APC, in its desperation has failed to realize that the people are no longer excited about the fake change it offered and that a space of six months is more than enough for the electorate to turn against a political party that has failed in office.

The party said the APC, by such argument, ‘might as well forget about contesting the December 5 governorship election in Bayelsa state where the ruling PDP won all contested positions in the 2015 general elections.’

“The scandalous resort by the APC to use security forces to frighten and intimidate voters and electoral officers to sway votes in its favour, in addition to other ploys made to set the stage for violence in the process, clearly collaborate the fact that it has already lost its support base in the country and particularly in the north.

“We are aware that the APC is already stretching its desperation to Kogi as well as Bayelsa state where, in the attempt to create tension, unleashed thugs on the campaign train of Governor Seriake Dickson on Tuesday, an action that is a clear test-run of their machinery of violence ahead of the Bayelsa December 5 election.

“Intelligence report available to us shows that this brazen attack on Governor Dickson was not spontaneous but part of a well-hatched plot to create an atmosphere of insecurity in the state, ostensibly to pave way for their violence-driven rigging strategy, including the deployment of

APC controlled security forces to frighten and intimidate voters as was the case in the Borno bye-election.

“The PDP wishes to state in clear terms that it would resist any attempt by the APC to derail the peaceful conduct of the November 21 and December 5 governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states respectively.  It is on this note that we call on President Muhammadu Buhari, as the leader of the nation and a huge beneficiary of the credible election organized by the PDP, to take immediate steps to rein-in his members, as their actions in Bayelsa state are capable of triggering a resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta region.

“Let the APC be amply reminded that Bayelsa and Kogi states are clear strongholds of the PDP and no amount of intimidation, threats and use of force will bend the will of the people or detract from their support for Governors Seriake Dickson and Idris Wada respectively. Moreover, the people of these states are not in any way ready or willing to accept any results that do not, in full measure, reflect their wishes and aspirations at the polls,” said the statement.