Onuminya Innocent in Sokoto
Exactly six days to the 2023 governorship and House of Assembly elections across the country, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Sokoto State have accused each other of conspiring with security agencies in the state to scuttle the electoral process.
The APC, in a press conference held at the party’s secretariat and addressed by its chairman, Isa Sadiq Acida, accused the PDP in the state of conspiring with security agencies to deploy armed men to polling units to attack voters and voting agents during the recently concluded presidential and National Assembly elections. Acida further alleged that the same people sent out of the PDP by the Governor Aminu Tambuwal-led administration turned out to have played a significant role in its downfall.
The party called on INEC to investigate the actions of some of its Ad Hoc and permanent staff, “which we believe connived with the PDP in the last election to deliberately delay the arrival of voting materials to the polling units and placed artificial clogs to the voting process, in areas where the APC has a large following.
“We also urge the security agencies to investigate incidents of deliberate destruction of ballot boxes, find out who destroyed the boxes, who their sponsors are, and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.”
But the PDP, during a stakeholders’ meeting in the state, called on its members across the state to ensure that their votes are protected against rigging or manipulation.
The stakeholders’ meeting was attended by the leaders of the party in the state, including Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, his Deputy, Muhammad Manir Dan’iya, and the party’s campaign DG, as well as former ministers, among many others.
PDP said it had thoroughly reviewed all infractions noticed during the presidential election and vowed never again to allow foul means to usurp power as it did in the past.
The party leaders berated the action of security agencies, especially the Nigerian police, which it said allowed themselves to be used by the state’s campaign DG of the APC, who is also the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi.
Speaking on the issue, the state governor, Tambuwal, urged the security agencies to be professional, stressing that any further attempt to intimidate the people in the forthcoming elections would be resisted.
“All of you know what happened last Saturday. We were winning overwhelmingly when the APC thugs invaded the polling units at the watch of security agencies,” he stated.
“These thugs rendered most of the election in many polling units inconclusive.
“Our party, the PDP, therefore, resolves that in as much as it remains a law-abiding political party, conducting its affairs strictly within the ambit of our nation’s electoral laws; the party will henceforth resist rigging.
“We will henceforth directly and physically confront and resist the election riggers from always having a field day by truncating our nascent democracy.
“Consequently, the PDP directs all its agents, its officials to be vigilant in all polling units to avoid repeating what happened last Saturday,” the governor explained.
He called on President Muhammad Buhari to caution erring security officials.
