PDP raises alarm over APC’s plot to simulate attacks on its own leaders

The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation on Friday raised the alarm on an alleged plot by the All Progressives Congress to simulate attacks on some of its own leaders with a view to accusing the PDP of being responsible for the attacks.

The Campaign Organisation, in a statement by its Director of Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, said it has been brought to its attention that a section of the leadership of the APC had perfected plans to simulate violent attacks on members of their own party and then point fingers at supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP for such attacks in order to portray “us as being violent”.

The statement by Fani-Kayode said: “It has been brought to our attention that a section of the leadership of the All Progressives Congress has now perfected plans to simulate violent attacks on members of their own party and then point fingers at supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP for such attacks in order to portray us as being violent.

“As diabolical as this plan appears to be, it should come as no surprise to the Nigerian people given the antecedents of the APC.

“It is their stock-in-trade and their hallmark to engage in cheap propaganda and blackmail and to indulge in the most hideous form of violence. “The recent torching of some of the branded buses of our party by the APC in Jos did not come to us as a surprise.

“Again the attacks on the convoy of our candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, whilst he was campaigning in Katsina, Bauchi, Taraba, Adamawa and Kaduna States were all carried out by members of the APC and the supporters and disciples of General Muhammadu Buhari.

“As an example of their sheer deceit and chicanery, there is a video of the burning of our campaign buses all over social media.

“This video footage showed a group of hoodlums offering songs of praise to General Muhammadu Buhari and chanting war songs whilst they indulged in a gruesome and unrestrained orgy of violence. Yet the APC still attempted to deceive Nigerians by claiming that the burning of the buses was carried out by members of the PDP in Plateau State.

“The fact of the matter is that our party was not embroiled in any violent intra-party fracas in Plateau state.

“Furthermore our party leaders and members in Plateau State have demonstrated the highest level of decorum and civility even in the face of sponsored violence in the state.

“It would be recalled that a serving senator (Gyang Dantong) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria lost his life in one of such sponsored acts of violence by the agents of darkness who have serially supported amnesty for terrorists.

“It is self-evident that those who burnt our buses in Plateau State were supporters of the APC and not members of our party.

“Yet rather than accept full responsibility for these attacks the APC quickly linked the attack on the residence of their party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, to the PDP, insinuating that there were more attacks to come.

“It has now come to our knowledge that a section of the leadership of the APC is perfecting plans to sponsor a series of simulated attacks on some key members of their own party.

“Their objective is to carry out the simulated attacks and then go public by linking supporters of our candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, to such attacks.

“This is an irresponsible and dangerous path to tread and we hereby serve notice to the leaders of the APC not to play with such dangerous fire. If they insist on doing so their plan will backfire in a way that they cannot possibly comprehend and it will have far-reaching and tumultuous consequences for the fortunes of their party.

“Yet the truth is that their plan will not work. It is yet another cheap attempt at poisoning the political environment and fouling up the political space.

“We hereby alert members of the public and the security agencies to be very vigilant so as not to become objects of collateral damage whenever the APC choose to carry out their plot.

“President Jonathan has repeatedly said that his ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian.  By way of contrast General Buhari has told the Nigerian people that ”the dog and the baboon will both be soaked in blood in 2015”.

“The Nigerian people will decide which of these two statements is more responsible and which of the two candidates is fit to lead our nation on March 28th. “On that day they will decide whether it is the candidate that wants peace at all costs and that insists that there must be no shedding of blood or the one that consistently talks about violence and the shedding of blood that will lead Nigeria for the next four years.

“We urge those that are set on the track of simulated violence to desist from carrying out their wicked plans and to desist from employing such foul means to gain sympathy for their candidate, their party and their dwindling fortunes.”