APC urges PDP to denounce campaign for election shift

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has challenged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the presidency to denounce the campaign for the postponement of the general election.

The party argued that the presidency’s failure to dissociate itself from the campaigns for election postponement makes it guilty of sabotaging the nation’s democracy.

It also accused the PDP and the presidency of orchestrating the current campaign for election postponement, “despite their denial and assurances that they are ready for the poll”.

”There is no clearer indication that the PDP and the presidency are the puppeteers behind the election shift campaign than Wednesday’s newspaper advertorial plainly campaigning for the polls to be shifted,” the APC said in a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday by its national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed.

”This advert, which has the picture of President Goodluck Jonathan and the logo of the PDP – meaning they will be the sole beneficiaries of the postponement they are seeking – leaves no one in doubt that the ruling party and the presidency are pathologically dishonest, deliberately deceptive and chronically terrified about the elections.”

The party said now that all pretences were off and the sponsors of the election postponement campaign unveiled, Nigerians must reject them and their campaign.

”The campaign, which is hinged on the fact that many Nigerians have not collected their permanent voter card (PVC), is not sincere. If it is, the PDP and the presidency would have instead been urging Nigerians to go all out and collect their PVCs so the election can hold. Why is this so impossible for them to do?” it queried.

“Like we said earlier, what prevents the federal government from declaring a three-day public holiday to give Nigerians the opportunity to collect their PVCs? Why is it that only the PDP and its sponsored groups and individuals are the ones leading the campaign for election postponement, even as our party, the APC, has been campaigning for Nigerians to go and collect their PVCs?

“Is it not instructive that at least 26 political parties have joined the no-postponement campaign, while the PDP/presidency, as well as the lick-spittle individuals and groups who have been compromised one way or another, continue to beat the drums of election shift?”

APC wondered why the PDP and presidency would be second-guessing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which has expressed readiness to proceed with the elections, and that it will be distributing PVCs until the eve of the election.

While urging its members and supporters in particular, and all Nigerians in general, to remain vigilant and be firm in saying ‘no’ to election postponement, the party appealed to the chief justice of the federation (CJN) to ensure that the courts were not used as a tool to sabotage the elections and the nation’s democracy.

“We know that the next frontier in the ongoing battle by the PDP/presidency to get our candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, disqualified and have the elections postponed, is the court. We know they will seek to secure spurious injunctions to scuttle the elections, following the footsteps of the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) in 1993. This is why we are appealing to the CJN,” it said.

“For the avoidance of doubt, we are ready for the elections and we will not, under any circumstance, support any shift in the dates for the elections, which were fixed more than a year ago.

“If the PDP and the Presidency are not afraid of anything, we challenge them to come out today to denounce the campaign for election postponement, dissociate themselves from it and announce unequivocally that they are ready for the elections. Failure to do that, they stand accused of working hard to sabotage the elections and truncate the nation’s democracy.”