The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday warned those it said might be planning to thwart the will of the people by announcing cooked-up result of today’s elections and then unleashing armed troops against those who may protest the fake result, to desist forthwith.
The alleged plans, the APC said, were not only anti-democratic but also anarchic.
In a statement in Lagos, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the plot to discountenance the votes of the people and announce ”a pre-written result giving victory to President Jonathan with just under two million votes to make it look credible, should be discarded.”
He added: ’’As the President himself said in his national broadcast on Friday, ‘the will of the people freely expressed through the ballot is the bedrock of all democracies and ours cannot be an exception.’
“We sincerely hope the President means those words and will allow the will of the people to prevail, irrespective of the outcome of the elections.’’
APC expressed concerns at “the secret meetings being held or planned across the country to rig the elections, as well as the violence being unleashed on the opposition, especially in Rivers, Sokoto and the South-West, among others, using thugs in uniform, backed by policemen and soldiers.”
The party said the electoral officials should be left to do their work unhindered, instead of the efforts being made by the PDP to compromise them.
It alleged that a senior government official in Ondo State ”is coordinating a clandestine meeting on Friday evening (last night) with 12 Electoral Officers as well as the Administration Secretary of INEC in the state.”
A similar meeting, according to him, was also scheduled for last night at Imeri, Ondo State, involving a top official of the Presidency and four electoral officers (EOs) for the Akoko Local Government and Ose.
There were to be other clandestine meetings last night in Ekiti, Osun and Rivers States between PDP chieftains and electoral officers on plans to rig the elections.
A former high ranking INEC official and a serving one were said to have met at the Bayelsa Governor’s Lodge in Abuja on Monday where they allegedly “recruited and deployed 36 former/retired INEC staff, representing one per state, to have access to INEC facilities, especially collation centres to rig the elections. They are being accompanied by a Special Task Force of security men to each state.’’
APC said: “All the devilish moves by those who are bent on rigging the elections and plunging the nation into crisis are being closely monitored by Nigerians themselves, hence there will be no hiding place for any election rigger and trouble maker.”