- Ruling party describes allegation as false
Udora Orizu in Abuja
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), has revealed that it reliably gathered that the agents of the federal government had concluded plans to clamp down on media houses and their reporters on Saturday.
But in a swift reaction, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has described the allegation as false.
In a press statement signed by the spokesman of the coalition, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, the opposition parties claimed the nefarious act would be orchestrated to ensure that the media houses do not have the opportunity of alerting Nigerians on the various irregularities being allegedly planned during the presidential and National Assembly elections in favour of the candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) across the country.
Top on the list of the media organisations listed for attack, CUPP claimed, are the African Independent Television (AIT), Silverbird Television, Arise Television, Raypower FM, and 15 other radio stations.
“The plan is to jam and destroy transmitting equipment of these media organisations on election day. The strategy also includes indiscriminate arrest and detention of reporters and cameramen of these stations, while their working tools will be confiscated and destroyed.”
“The opposition parties have credible information on the move by the APC working through the NSA and the elder brother of Governor Nasir el-Rufai, named Bashir el-Rufai, who is the Director of IHS Towers, a major base
station services provider for telecom companies to disconnect the service providers in targeted areas under the guise of debt recovery for unpaid services rendered to the telecommunication companies.
“They want to keep the whole country in darkness, so as to stop citizens from tweeting, blogging, and giving live updates on what is going on in every centre, so that they will be able to carry out their rigging plan.
They don’t want the people’s voice to be heard because they have already concluded their evil plot to ensure that the election is not free and fair,” CUPP alleged.
The coalition called on all stakeholders, including Nigeria’s international friends, to be aware of this plan which has been perfected by those who are bent on subverting the will of the people in the Saturday election.
“We are watching them and we shall continue to expose their evil plans for the world to see and know,” it added.
Meanwhile, the APC Presidential Campaign Council has described as false, an allegation that the party is plotting to jam all networks on election day to prevent Nigerians from sharing information about the voting process.
In a statement issued by the Director, Strategic Communications of APC campaign, Festus Keyamo, the party said such a plot is nothing but a figment of the imagination of the PDP.
It said: “Whilst the story is full of half-truths and outright lies, the portion that concerns us at the Campaign Council is the allegation that the networks would be jammed on Saturday by the said Israeli company.
“This is nothing but a figment of the imagination of the PDP, the obvious sponsors of the story. We have warned a few days ago of a series of fake news lined up by the PDP and Atiku’s campaign team in the last days leading up to the elections. This is obviously one of them.”
APC presidential campaign council said the striking thing about all the false alarms raised by the PDP about this election is that they are obviously
judging others by their own standards.
