Ahead of the March 9 elections, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has cautioned the President Mohammadu Buhari led APC government against using the military to intimidate both state governments and voters in the South South states.
The party in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary and Director, Media & Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organization, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it has noted the illegal occupation and provocative besiegement of PDP states in the South South.
The party said the states, which include Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Akwa-Ibom and Cross River states have been besieged by the military ahead of the March 9, governorship and State Assembly elections.
The PDP said this illegal operation was to further militarize the South South zone, use soldiers to suppress voters and re-enact the massive rigging of polls for the All Progressives Congress, APC, as was done in the widely discredited February 23 Presidential election.
The statement read in part, “It is clear that after using military to unleash violence, alter results and muscle out fabricated 25 percent ballot for President Muhammadu Buhari across the South South states and other PDP strongholds, the APC now wants to use the military to fight our governors, suppress our members and forcefully take over our states.
“Nigerians already know how APC leaders from the South South are going around boasting that the military will use violence to give them governorship election triumph, the same way it did during the Presidential election, where innocent Nigerians were brutalized and murdered.
“Nigerians are witnesses to how 13 persons were murdered in Akuku-Toru Local Government in Rivers state, in addition to those killed in Ahoada East, Ahoada West and Emohua Local Government Areas during the Presidential election.
“Also, the public already knows how the Minister of Transport and the Director General of the Buhari Campaign Organization, Rotimi Amaechi, used soldiers to hold an INEC official hostage, changed the election results and allocated fabricated figures for President Buhari.
“In Akwa-Ibom state, Senator Godswill Akpabio has been using soldiers to suppress and harass the people, in spite of assurances by INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, that the military will not be involved in elections
“In Bayelsa state, soldiers were freely used against the people. In the process the photographer to the State governor was murdered. The Deputy Commissioner of Police in the state was even kidnapped.
“In Brass, East Senatorial district of the state, it was a war situation as the military took over the electoral process and even declared winners. Soldiers were deployed to the remotest villages where the voters were suppressed and results altered in favour of President Buhari.
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“Now that it is clear to all that the 2019 election is not between the PDP and the APC, but a war between the state apparatus of power and the PDP. The PDP cannot continue to fold its hands in the face of these killings and suppression of voters by the APC.
“The PDP therefore cautions the APC and its compromised security agents to note that the people of the Niger Delta are already hurting over the killings of their compatriots during the February 23 election and any further provocation will be a clear recipe for crisis.”
The statement said the PDP was committed to peaceful election and its people are fully mobilized for the March 9 election to go out and vote and will use all legitimate means available in a democracy to defend themselves and their votes.
“In this regard, any person who yields him or herself as a tool in the hands of evil should therefore be ready to face the legitimate anger of the people.”
