Guber polls : S’South under military occupation, PDP cries out
* Says FG stoking crisis
By Steve Oko
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has raised the alarm that South South geopolitical zone considered its stronghold had come under military occupation ahead of the March 9 Governorship and State House of Assembly polls.
PDP which raised the alarm Thursday accused the APC -led Federal Government of plots to use military intimidations to rig out PDP candidates in the polls.
“They want to use the military and take away PDP controlled states “, PDP lamented.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, who made the allegation during a media briefing in Abuja, warned of the grave consequences of the continued militarisation of the zone and other PDP -controlled states.
PDP identified the affected states as Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom and Cross River.
According to the PDP Spokesman, the APC is desperate to take over these states and is ready to do the unthinkable just to actualise its ambition.
His words :“It is clear that after using military to unleash violence, alter results and muscle out fabricated 25 per cent ballot for President Muhammadu Buhari across the South-South states and other PDP strongholds, the APC now wants to use the military to fight our governors, suppress our members and forcefully take over our states.
“Nigerians already know how the APC leaders from the South-South are going around boasting that the military will use violence to give them governorship election triumph, the same way it did during the presidential election, where innocent Nigerians were brutalised and murdered.
Ologbondiyan said “the public already knew how the Minister of Transport and the Director General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, Rotimi Amaechi, used soldiers to hold an INEC official hostage, changed the election results and allocated fabricated figures to Buhari.”
According to him, in Akwa-Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio had allegedly been using soldiers to suppress and harass the people. This, he said, was in spite of assurances by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, that the military will not be involved in the elections.
He added, “Now that it is clear to all that the 2019 election is not between the PDP and the APC, but a war between the state apparatus of power and the PDP, the PDP cannot continue to fold its hands in the face of these killings and suppression of voters by the APC.
“On this note, the PDP, ahead of the March 9 elections, cautions the APC and its compromised security agents to note that the people of the Niger Delta are already hurting over the killings of their compatriots during the February 23 election and any further provocation will be a clear recipe for crisis.
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