The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged plan by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government to frame up and arrest its presidential candidate in the February 23 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Part of the plot, the party said, was the resort to unfounded claims by aides of President Muhammad Buhari to link Atiku with a foreign lobby group, as well as the sponsorship of Atiku campaign posters, to portray him and the PDP as being desperate to subvert the Nigerian constitution.
PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, stated that the orchestrated plot against Atiku and the PDP by agents of the Federal Government, officials of the presidency and the Buhari Media Organization (BMO), was to cause tension in the country and ultimately derail the ongoing petition against Buhari and APC, at Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.
The party, however, said that no amount of fabrications, attempt at frame up, as well as veiled and open threats by the Federal Government could stop its presidential candidate from reclaiming his mandate at the tribunal.
According to the statement, the call for Atiku’s arrest was inciting, noting that such has brought to the fore the unwholesome intention of the APC-led administration against Atiku for seeking to retrieve his mandate at the court.
“Such orchestrations are also targeted at instilling fear, cause apprehension in the citizenry and create opening to further suppress genuine public opinion and the course of justice in the quest by Atiku Abubakar and the PDP to restore the will of the people.
“Part of the motive is to use lies, fabrications, threats and sponsoring of Atiku campaign posters to portray Atiku Abubakar and the PDP as being desperate and ready to subvert the rules in the pursuit of our mandate; and by so doing, discredit our candidate in the eyes of the judiciary and the public in general.
“This explains why agents of the APC-led government fabricated and pushed into the public space, bogus and laughable claims that Atiku Abubakar paid $30,000 to a U.S. lobby group to assist in the quest to reclaim our mandate only for the Federal Government and the presidency to turn around to feast on the fabrications with threats against Atiku Abubakar,” the party said.
PDP stated that Atiku does not need any foreign lobby group to prove his case before the tribunal, adding that he has overwhelming evidence before the court to do so.
It called on Nigerians to take copious note of threats by the presidency through the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, to jail Atiku based on trumped up allegations, who, the party noted, also described Atiku as “one who is lucky to be walking free.”
PDP said Nigerians should hold APC responsible should any harm come to Atiku, his family or any member of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization (PPCO) in the course of the pursuit of the mandate at the tribunal.
It advised the Federal Government to allow the tribunal to judiciously carry out its responsibilities without let or hindrance as well as stop the plots to overheat the system and derail the course of justice as such would all come to naught.
Earlier on Thursday, a political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, had accused President Buhari and the leadership of the APC of plotting to arrest bubakar on trumped up charges of treasonable felony.
Frank in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday in Abuja, said that according to authoritative sources in the Villa, how to kill Atiku – who is currently challenging the victory of General Buhari in the last elections – has been the subject of series of hushed-up security meetings by the Aso Rock Cabal in the past few weeks.
As reported by Vanguard, he disclosed that the alleged sinister plot against Atiku has commenced with the planting and spreading of fake news by members of the cabal purporting that Atiku has paid lobbyist in the United States of America the sum of $30,000 to lobby the U.S. Congress not to recognise the fraudulent re-election of Buhari for a second term.
He said that the grand plot is to arrest Atiku on arrival from his vacation abroad and clamp him into jail for alleged treason. He stated that “as part of the overall design to liquidate the former Vice President, the Buhari Media Organization (BMO) has already called on the nation’s security agencies to “probe Atiku” – a euphemism for arrest and kangaroo trial – for allegedly seeking the ‘Venezuelan option’ by lobbying the U.S. Congress not to recognize the re-election of General Buhari.”
He said that after the planned arrest and detention of Atiku, the Presidential Candidate of the PDP would suddenly be pronounced dead in prison just like the winner of the June 12 Presidential Election, Chief Moshood Abiola, who died in questionable circumstances in prison while seeking to reclaim his stolen mandate during the Gen Sani Abacha’s Junta.
He disclosed that the sole aim of wanting Atiku out of the way at all cost is borne out of desperation, “the cabal having realized that Buhari’s purported victory during the last presidential election cannot withstand forensic judicial scrutiny, which the former Vice President is now poised to unravel before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.”
He disclosed that information available to him further shows that the presidency has ordered all APC state governors to pull down all Atiku’s Billboards in their states and in their place erect others with inciting and incendiary messages just like they have started to execute with the “PUKKA Posters” bearing the name and photograph of Atiku now placed at strategic positions at the Central Business District in Abuja.
The Bayelsa-born political activist however warned Buhari and his supporters to desist from acts capable of eclipsing democracy in the country and with untold consequences for all Nigerians.
He stated that any attempt to frustrate and foreclose the judgement of the Presidential Elections Petitions Tribunal by arresting Atiku and sending him to jail, preparatory to his murder will ignite the anger of Nigerians and bring cataclysmic tragedies never before witnessed in the history of the country.
He called on patriotic Nigerians and members of the international community, especially the General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s Peace Committee and the United States and United Kingdom respectively not to gloss over events of monumental proportions currently being incubated by General Buhari and his men, in the interest of peace and democratic sustainability in the country.
NewTelegraph/Vanguard
