APC to PDP: we understand your frustration

Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa

The Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as a frustrated political group.

It said the party has found it convenient to blame its failures and looming defeat at the forthcoming governorship election on the opposition and agents of the Federal Government.

The APC was reacting to a statement credited to the Director, Media and Publicity of the Senator Douye Diri Campaign Organisation, Dr. Jonathan Obuebite, which alleged that the party (APC) was colluding with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig the election.

APC said it was ridiculous and signs of PDP’s end in Bayelsa to make such childish and irresponsible claims.

The Chairman of APC Contact, Reconciliation and Integration Committee, Chief Dikivie Ikiogha, in a statement in Yenagoa, said the people had known the PDP for crying wolf over an evil plot it was engaged in so as to divert public attention.

Ikiogha said the PDP, like its master (Governor Seriake Dickson), had the knack of always playing the victim whenever it was an actor of any “evil script” against any democratic process.

He said it was obvious that the PDP started blackmailing the electoral system because all their strategies to compromise the system and rig the election had collapsed following refusal of the officials of INEC to do its bidding.

Ikiogha said the APC learnt that the PDP tried in vain to use its money to unduly influence the Resident Electoral Commissioner and compel him to accept its card-carrying members as the commission’s ad-hoc officials for the election.

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He said: “We know that the refusal of the REC, who is a pastor, to fall for these antics angered the PDP and compelled the sinking party to launch verbal attacks on the REC, including making frivolous claims against the APC.

“How can a party in its right senses claim that the APC was involved in recruiting Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs) for the election?  As a responsible party, which believes in the independence of the INEC and the sanctity of the electoral process, the APC can never and has no power to meddle in the internal affairs of INEC.

“All we ask for from INEC is to give all the parties a free, fair and peaceful atmosphere to participate in the election. We are also asking the commission and the REC to resist pressures and blackmails from the PDP to compromise the system.”

Ikiogha recalled that when the National Chairman of INEC, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, held a stakeholders’ meeting in Bayelsa,  the state Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), who is an appointee of Dickson, said he wrote a letter to the commission advising against the transfer of any INEC official.

“The IPAC chairman, who is a special adviser to Dickson, said the timeframe of three months for the transfer of INEC officials had elapsed and asked the commission not to transfer anybody from the commission.

“We all thought and believed that the position was that of the state government. Some parties objected to it. But a few days later, the government through Obuebite, who is the Commissioner for Education, is calling for the removal of the REC.

“For every right-thinking person, it can be deduced that they had perfected a plot to corrupt the REC, thinking maybe their offer was too mouth-watery for the REC to resist it. Then when they discovered that the REC toed the path of integrity following his calling as a pastor, they resorted to blackmailing him. They are, perhaps, looking for a weak REC, who will do their bidding.

“We are also aware that the PDP has amassed a lot of money that should have been used to develop the state for this election. The PDP intends to corrupt the system and engage in massive vote buying during the election. The money is not Dickson’s money. It is our collective money.

“We are calling on Bayelsans to collect their money from the PDP and vote against the party that has underdeveloped them over the years. We are also telling the agents of the PDP, who will be moving the money, to be careful because at the end of the election they will account for it. Let it be on record that no matter how much the PDP spends to compromise the election, they will still fail because the people are with the APC.”