The All Progressives Congress has issued a strong warning to those who may be planning to thwart the will of the people by announcing cooked up result of Saturday’s general elections and then unleashing armed troops against those who may protest the fake result, to desist from such an anti-democratic and anarchic plot.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the plan by some desperate politicians to discountenance the votes of the people and announce a pre-written result giving victory to President Goodluck Jonathan with just under two million votes, to make it look credible, should be discarded.
The statement said: “As the President himself said in his national broadcast on Friday, ‘the will of the people freely expressed through the ballot is the bedrock of all democracies and ours cannot be an exception.’ We sincerely hope the President means those words and will allow the will of the people to prevail, irrespective of the outcome of the elections.”
The APC expressed serious concerns at the secret meetings being held or planned across the country to rig the elections, as well as the violence being unleashed on the opposition, especially in Rivers and Sokoto States and the South West, among others, using thugs in uniform, backed by policemen and soldiers.
The party said the electoral officials should be left to do their work unhindered, instead of the efforts being made by the Peoples Democratic Party to compromise them.
Mohammed said in the statement: “In Ondo, we have been reliably informed that one Dayo Fadahunsi, SA to the State Governor on Labour, is coordinating a clandestine meeting on Friday evening with 12 Electoral Officers as well as the Administration Secretary of INEC in the state. There is also another meeting, also on Friday in Imeri, involving the Chief of Staff to the President, the DG of the National Sports Commission and Mr. Bode Olajumoke with four Electoral Officers (EOs) for the Akoko Local Government and Ose.
“In Ekiti, the EO of Ise-Orun is facilitating a meeting of all the other EOs in the state with Gov. Ayodele Fayose today, Friday, while in Osun, one Prince Fadahunsi is the arrowhead of another clandestine meeting that involves Senator Iyiola Omisore, Mr. Wale Oke and Dr. Olu Alabi.
“In Rivers, all 23 EOs are billed to meet with Mr. Peter Odili today, while a plot has been hatched to foment trouble in Obiakor, Okrika and Ommuma. For Bayelsa, a meeting was held at Bayelsa Governor’s Lodge in Abuja on Monday, coordinated by former INEC Chairman Maurice Iwu and Barrister Azaga, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Bayelsa. They have recruited and deployed 36 former/retired INEC staff, representing one per state, to have access to INEC facilities especially Collation Centres to rig the elections. They are being accompanied by a Special Task Force of Security men to each state.”
The APC said all the devilish moves by those who are bent on rigging the elections and plunging the nation into crisis are being closely monitored by Nigerians themselves, hence there will be no hiding place for any election rigger and trouble maker.