APC accuses PDP of plot to blackmail Jega, Tinubu

 

                    A huge amount of money is to be stuffed into the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Attahiru Jega’s bank account.
                   Former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu will be accused of making the payment, the All Progressives Congress (APC) alleged yesterday.
                   The party said the plan was being hatched to justify the on-going campaign for Prof. Jega’s removal and prevent him from conducting the re-scheduled elections.
                     APC also alleged that “there is an on-going effort to compromise the card reader, which the Jonathan Administration sees as inimical to its rigging plans”.
But the PDP denied it all, saying it has no plans to rig elections.

APC National Publicity Secretary Lai Mohammed told reporters in Lagos that plans were also underway to credit the bank accounts of certain key institutions with huge sums purportedly from the main opposition party to compromise these institutions.
Acknowledging the tension in the polity, he spoke of a plan to instigate smaller political parties to agitate for the postponement of the March 28 and April 11 elections.
Mohammed said the intention was to ensure that the elections do not take place, until Jega’s tenure expires.
However, Mohammed said the grand design to manipulate the general elections and implicate APC leaders will fail, stressing that Nigerians are now wiser and more vigilant.
Mohammed, who was accompanied by the spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mallam Shehu Garba, disclosed that APC leaders were being targeted for liquidation through harassment, intimidation and repression.
He reminded the Federal Government and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the world’s attention is on Nigeria, adding that lack of free, fair and violence-free elections will affect the country’s leadership position in Africa.
Mohammed said the agitation for the dumping of card readers and permanent voter cards, Jega’s sack and troops deployment will undermine the electoral process and subject the ballot box to abuses.
Adducing reasons for these agitations, he said President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP knew they cannot win the election because the government has not lived up to expectations.
Mohammed alleged plots to implicate APC leaders in crimes, create panic in the polity and shift the elections.
He said: “There is a plot to transfer a humongous amount of money into the bank account of the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and then claim that the money came from Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC in order to justify the ongoing plan to sack Prof. Jega so he won’t organise the elections.
“Beyond Jega, there is also a plan to credit the bank accounts of some key national institutions with huge amounts of money purportedly from our party, the APC, ostensibly to compromise those institutions.
“There is plan to use some political parties that are satellites of the PDP to push for the postponement of the elections again. The plot is to get the parties to address a press conference to say the elections should not hold in the Northeast, until September 2015 because of the ongoing counter-insurgency battle there. The intention is to make sure Jega’s tenure expires before the polls, so that they can appoint a malleable card-carrying member of the PDP as INEC Chair to conduct the polls.
“There are plans to use the security agencies to intimidate key opposition leaders as well as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and telecommunications service providers to disrupt voice and data transmission, especially in APC strongholds, on election day.
“The telephones of our leaders have been bugged and their movements are being daily monitored. Top on the list of the security agencies to be used against the opposition is the Department of State Security (DSS), which will be used to compel all Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to hand over the names and telephone numbers of all INEC’s regular and adhoc staff who will conduct the elections, as part of the Jonathan administration’s rigging plans.
It is no longer news that a signal has been sent to all state commands of the DSS to get the list of all INEC Returning Officers and Adhoc Staff before March 10th.
“There is also the ongoing illegal recruitment of over 500 new cadets into one of the country’s security outfits, 50 per cent of who are from the home state of the outfit’s top brass, in violation of the provisions of the Constitution, especially as the recruitment does not reflect the Federal Character .Nocturnal meetings are being held between various heads of national security agencies and the leadership of the PDP to undermine the coming elections.”
Mohammed alleged that the Presidency has hired two Israelis and a Belgian to hack and corrupt INEC computers on election day, adding that the trio have been paid 25 percent of their contract fees upfront.
He added: “Huge funds are being provided for retired and serving security personnel to buy up PVCs, with the hope that they can be used once the card reader is compromised. Remember, gentlemen, that there is a case in court seeking to declare the use of the card reader in the forthcoming elections unconstitutional.
“In the days leading up to the elections, the Jonathan administration is planning to give the opposition the Ekiti treatment by massively arresting key opposition leaders, with a view to destabilising their ranks, putting them away and paving the way for a free rein of their rigging agents. Towards this end, thousands of signed blank detention orders have been procured.
“As part of the plan to implicate our leaders, illegal substances may be put into their checked-in luggage during local and international flights. That is why we are calling on our leaders to travel only with their carry-on baggage.”