The South-South zonal chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has raised the alarm over alleged plans to manipulate the 2015 general elections.
The National Vice-Chairman of APC in the zone, Mr. Hilliard Eta, said in a statement on Sunday that the increasing threats to the party by the Peoples Democratic Party was a pointer to that effect.
Eta, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Bassey Ita, said the recent warning by Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, over alleged plan to rig next year’s polls and the siege on the National Assembly by security agencies lent credence to the plan by the PDP to rig the forthcoming poll.
The statement read in part, “Last Thursday’s siege on the National Assembly by agents of the state, as deployed, albeit illegally, was to test the waters over the practicability and possibility or otherwise of the 2015 elections rigging agenda when the military, police and other security personnel will be deployed in areas known to be the stronghold of the APC for threat motive.
“The confusion created by the Independent National Electoral Commission in the recent issuance of Permanent Voter Card and the Continuous Voter Registration in Lagos, Kano and Rivers states, known to have massive support for APC, was a strategy to reduce the strength of the party in those states so as to reduce the party’s chances of winning massively there”.
The South-South APC, while decrying the siege laid to the National Assembly by security agencies, advised the leadership of the ruling party at the centre to leave Amaechi alone.
It noted, “Our reaction was informed by recent statements endorsed by Dr. Doyin Okupe, presidential aide, defending the police siege on the National Assembly last Thursday as well as the warning by Governor (Rotimi) Amaechi over allegations by the governor that the presidency plans to rig the 2015 polls and the APC’s reactions that would follow.
“Nothing short of what Amaechi has promised will happen if the Presidency makes good its rigging plan during the 2015 polls”.
