The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sunday, warned President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) not to consider the option of rigging the forthcoming general elections.
Warning against rigging, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement said Nigeria is bigger than Mr. Buhari and the APC.
Drawing from history, the party said no leader has ever succeeded in putting Nigerians in a siege, adding even the importation of mercenaries into the country by the ruling party cannot change that reality
It lamented that the enduring spirit that won and nurtured the country’s democracy is being attacked by Mr. Buhari and the APC.
The party listed unrelenting constitutional breaches, attacks on democratic institutions, violation of human rights, a siege on the electoral system and opening of territorial borders to mercenaries as the sins of the president and his party.
It argued the braches are meant to subdue the people so Mr. Buhari might achieve a self-succession plan, having realised there is no way they can win in a free, fair and peaceful election.
“There is a ferocious attempt to take away our liberty as a people. There is total clampdown, arrest and detention of dissenting voices; invasion of media houses, manhandling and illegal detention of journalists by state forces have become the order of the day; but all these will not break the Nigerian spirit,” Mr. Ologbondiyan said.
“Our nation will never succumb to Buhari Presidency’s assault on our National Assembly, the attack on our judiciary and besieging of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) where President Buhari’s relation is being foisted as the head of the collation centre.
“Nigerians have decided to vote out President Buhari, come February 16, and no amount of intimidation, clampdown and harassment can change that resolve.
“It has become manifest that compatriots, irrespective of creed, ethnicity and political leanings, are today extremely eager to vote out the Buhari Presidency which, out of sheer incompetence, has wrecked our once robust economy and brought so much poverty, hunger, pain and anguish to Nigerians, once reputed as the happiest people in the world.
“The Buhari Presidency and the APC have come to the stark reality that the influences on which they rode to power in 2015 no longer avails. They have come to the moment of truth that Nigerians have seen through their lies, propaganda, false promises, beguilements and holier-than-thou posturing and are now poised to take back their country at the polls,” the party stated.
It referred to last week’s report of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) that predicted a won for Mr. Abubakar and the endorsements by groups like Afenifere, the Ohaneze Ndigbo, the Northern Elders’ Forum, the Pan Niger Delta Forum and the Middle Belt Forum.
As a result, PDP said the APC and the Presidency have become uncontrollably feverish over the overwhelming acceptance gained by Mr. Abubakar in all the geopolitical zones, particularly in the North West states of Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna and Jigawa, hitherto considered as Mr. Buhari’s political stronghold.
Having lost genuine followership in the North-west, the North-central, the North-east and a greater part of the South-west, all of which gave them a ride to victory in 2015, and having no prospects in the South-east and South-south, it said the APC and the Presidency now seek ways to derail the electoral process.
“This accounts for the manipulations in INEC and the smuggling in of mercenaries from the Niger Republic to populate APC rallies, ostensibly to unleash them on our nation immediately it is clear that President Buhari is losing at the polls,” the PDP continued.
“However, the PDP wants President Buhari to note that Nigeria will not fall. Our country, as a nation of over 200 million resilient men and women, is bigger than President Buhari as well as the APC and would resist all anti-democratic forces being unleashed against our democratic order.
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“Nigerians have chosen democracy with its tenets, as a way of life, including justice and constitutional freedom it offers the citizens to determine who their leaders should be at any given time, and nobody, not even President Buhari, can take away this freedom and rights, under any circumstance whatsoever.
“Nigerians know how the PDP restored, nurtured and allowed our democracy to thrive to the extent that it was possible for the opposition to win in a general election with President Buhari as the major beneficiary.
“The PDP allowed a free and fair election, respected the will of the people and handed over power to President Buhari, without any shenanigans that would have denied him victory,” the party said.
The PDP cautioned that as Nigerians are determined to vote out Mr. Buhari due to his incompetence, divisiveness, executive high-handedness and corruption, he must not allow his ambition to set the nation on fire.
It called on the president to accept defeat if he loses the February 16 election.
“President Buhari should know that Nigerians have chosen Atiku Abubakar as their next President to return our nation to the path of national cohesion and economic prosperity. This national consensus is bigger than President Buhari or any other Nigerian for that matter,” the PDP stated.