Onuminya Innocent in Sokoto
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Sokoto State has accused the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, of using security at his disposal to intimidate their supporters at the just concluded governorship and House Assembly elections in the state.
Briefing journalists at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in Sokoto yesterday, the state Chairman of the party, Alhaji Aliyu Bello Goronyo, said thousands of their supporters were arrested during the election.
He maintained that the security apparatus were used to intimidate their supporters during the election which led to disenfranchising them.
He further explained that the People Democratic Party (PDP) as a law-abiding party with longest history of governance in Nigeria is using this medium to commend its teaming supporters in Sokoto State for their sustained commitment and resilience which manifested in their mass trooping out to vote for the party in the just concluded governorship and state Assembly elections
He disclosed that available data confirm that the turn out for this last election was almost nine hundred thousand which contrasted with the presidential and National Assembly elections which have the turnout of about six hundred thousand voters.
“The party is mindful of the ordeal that its teaming members are being subjected to deliberately by the leadership of the APC. This situation was plotted deliberately by the appointment of the Minister of Police Affairs as the Director-General of the APC Campaign Council in the state.
“We have witnessed unprecedented misuse of security to arrest, harass and intimidate our members towards undermining their freedom to exercise their franchise of voting for their preferred party,” he added.
Goronyo said the party is collating and studying reports from all the local government areas in the state on the March 18 governorship and state Assembly elections, stressing that they are already in possession of disturbing violation of the Electoral Act, and that appropriate measures will be taken to address the anomaly to ensure that the right of the voters would be protected.
He said since the announcement of the results of the election, which purportedly gave legitimacy to unprecedented electoral fraud in the state, the much
Anticipated political violence, which characterise the APC antecedent in the state has manifested in alarming proportion across all the local government in the state.
“We are indeed constrained to put on record the dastardly act of killings that occurred in some part of the state,” he stated.
The chairman saidthree innocent citizens were killed in Shagari by close associates of the leader of the party (APC) in the state.
He also stated that the son of a PDP supporter, Late Armiya’u Mada in Tudun Wada area in Sokoto was gruesome murdered.
“Meanwhile, instead of arresting and arraigning the perpetrators to face justice, security agencies are busy focusing attention on PDP supporters based on prompting by the APC leadership in the state,”Goronyo said.
He enjoined their teeming supporters to remain calm as the party would soon make its position known to the general public.
